D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 1992: Chapter 1992 Courier Stations

--- Kat ---

If you’d asked Kat what she thought the plan for the rest of the day would be before entering the meeting with the King, she’d have guessed a few things. Cleanup and helping with the restoration of the park, perhaps killing some time or checking in with Lin. Guarding Jen was on the table, or if she somehow knew what sort of things were going to be discussed at the meeting, perhaps watching over the warehouse or garden shed they were planning to setup the tunnel in.

In truth, she was being used as an express courier. Kat didn’t mind per say, but it was a bit strange. Perhaps that was silly to think. On a technical level, the delivery of the node was already an example of her being a courier, and her ability to fly meant that she didn’t need to worry about her speed around normal people nor any awkward to navigate streets. She just needed a good idea of her destination and a vague direction.

Charles and Steel had decided on a warehouse for the final tunnel location. It was, in many ways, bait. Kat was being volunteered to act as a major part of the defence for the area until it was first attacked... and she wasn’t sure either of them noticed they hadn’t actually ASKED about it. Sure she was planning to say yes and Lily had agreed with her before nodding off back to sleep but Hedera hadn’t been consulted at all.

Still, even if they hadn’t asked they had assured her there were some bonus rewards on the table. So she supposed it was a lot more like being contracted to do work without actually signing on the dotted line. For now though, delivering a message to a number of guard stations about what was going to happen was her first priority.

It was interesting. They were no longer planning to keep things quiet. At this point, it was a a way to inform everyone... and lay out quite a big deal of bait. She wasn’t being subtle at all with her direct flight paths and she was told to ensure it was that way. No sneaking inside the stations and trying to keep people from noticing. Noticing was half the point. They were also just announcing it in the letter. Explaining what was happening, and that it was to be fully announced soon.

Technically any guard office wasn’t meant to spread things around, but everyone in on the plan was quite sure the entire city would know before the official announcement. The whole point was to stir people up. The attack might happen, or it might not... but if it did, the idea was twofold.

If they were clearly trying to just get through the tunnel early? Then they were just going to let them. Now... Kat felt it was a little awkward to be arranging for that sort of thing without telling Weaver... so Lily did it for her. Weaver knew of the plan, and while she wasn’t thrilled she also didn’t care enough about random people to complain about it. She was more annoyed about not being consulted, and definitely planned to make a bit of a stink, but only once the immediate issues had cleared out.

The second option, for if the fight seemed to be more about injuring the guards or trying to hold the location? Then it would be time for Kat, Steel and a few others to go through and cripple or kill them. Well, cripple might not technically be true considering they had healers, but Kat was happy to go along with it considering the context.

She probably wouldn’t aim for killing blows unless the other side was acting like berserkers but she’d happily put down a large defensive line of demonic fire they could choose to run through at their own risk. If someone froze solid being an idiot, that really wasn’t Kat’s problem.

Her first delivery was to the guard station closest to the castle. She was going to be tracing a winding line in a circle around the castle as she went. Roughly anyway. Guard stations weren’t perfectly in line with each other but this seemed the most efficient way to get to them all with minimal direction. As long as she knew where it was, roughly, Kat was sure she could work it out.

The closest station was tiny. Barely a few rooms together. It was less a station in and of itself and more of an outpost for the castle. They watched over this part of the gardens and a little bit past it. It was basically a large box with a barred window for the guard to look out, a break room for one or two people, a small single person cell to keep somewhere before a transfer and a notably enchanted bench that was probably for sending messages back to the castle.

Kat pulled the letter out of the fancy messenger bag she was given for the job, complete with fancy seal on the outside to mark her as an official courier. The guard behind the bars took the letter, pressed it against the desk to confirm it was legit and then nodded at her, ”Do you need a response?”

”No,” Kat said.

The guard nodded and went back to looking bored, not opening the letter just yet. Kat thought it was a bit weird he wasn’t checking it, not like they were busy but she was told not to stick around and wait so back into the air it was and on to the next guard station. This one was closer to what she’d expect from a precinct, a proper building of moderate size. Walking up the guard watching the front desk, she was waved past when they looked at her messenger bag.

Kat continued into the guard post, heading for the obvious door marked ’Head Guard’ knocking when she reached it. ”Yes?” asked the voice from behind the door.

”Urgent message from the palace,” Kat informed them.

The door swung open without the sound of anyone getting up to reveal a female guard with no armour and a pear of glasses on. She had casual looking attire on and her plate armour was on a stand in the corner. Kat approached and handed the letter over, where, just like the last time, it was placed on the desk until a confirmation of some kind signalled it was official. ”Do you need a response?” asked the guard.

Kat shook her head, ”No,”

”Alright, thank you then,” said the guard with a nod clearly dismissing Kat. Kat made her way back out, ready to repeat the process over and over again. It was pretty much the same story everywhere. She arrived, was let in, the recipient would scan the letter and then once it was confirmed legitimate they’d check if a response was immediately necessary. Kat wondered if that last part was part of confirming that she was indeed a real courier but that was just a suspicion she had.

The first odd stop was when the guard was asleep at the desk. Kat carefully opened the door and looked at the sleeping figure. Glancing around the room nothing appeared to be disturbed... but they might have just snuck past. Kat didn’t have any good way to check if the person had been knocked out or not, so she opened the door she knew led to the back offices, as the layouts were quite similar every time.

When she stepped inside, a guard on break, or perhaps just working on paperwork noticed her and moved over. ”Excuse me, Miss, you can’t be here without permission.”

Kat stepped full out from the door showing off her courier bag with a slight tilt of her hips and the guard’s eyes widened before darting up to a corner of the room. Kat followed his eyes and saw nothing there... but maybe something was supposed to be as the guard glared at the empty spot for a few moments before returning his eyes to Kat. ”I see... how did you get past the front desk?”

”They were asleep,” Kat answered.

The guard groaned and moved towards Kat, clearly non aggressively. She allowed him past her and he looked at the desk and frowned again. ”No he’s clearly... wait hang on...” the guard walked up to where the sleeping one was and waved a hand through the air. It passed through nothing but Kat now had a good idea of what was going on.

”Illusions?” asked Kat, keeping quiet.

”Seems so... looks like someone is about to get in trouble. Could you come with my to see the chief? We can show him this and you can deliver whatever notice you have at the same time. This is the THIRD time he’s been caught sleeping on the job. Not sure what the response is going to be... but it’s going to be something,” grumbled the guard.

Kat nodded and the two of them made their way to the head guard. It was... somewhat standard after that. It turned out the reason the guard was hired at all was because they were related to another head guard in a different district but they were NOT getting away with napping on the job this time.