Chapter 26 — This Counts as a Former Residence, I Suppose?

"Save it. If I really wanted to take something, I wouldn't need your help," Gao Yang said, waving a hand to cut off Amber's unrealistic schemes. "Francis II would have to be far more muddled than he is to haggle over a thing like this."

Amber blinked. "Fine, fair enough. Most of the stuff in this room isn't worth much anyway—mostly replicas, I'd say. Only that axe and the vase by the door are genuine... oh, never mind, the vase is fake too."

Good heavens—how long had the girl been at it, and she'd already appraised everything in the room?!

With talent like that, could you spare a bit of energy to mind that loose mouth of yours and maybe work on your courage while you're at it?

Seeing that no one was inclined to pay her any attention, Amber swung her legs a while longer, then started hunting for a new topic: "So what did you drag me along for, anyway? I'm not one of your family's knights, not a soldier—just a passing thief. What could I possibly do for you?"

"First: you dug up my grave. You say you went in there for shelter, but under the laws of the kingdom that's still a hanging offense. I, as the injured party, pardoned you—don't you think you're obliged, and wise, to do a little something for me?" Gao Yang looked at Amber. "Second: I genuinely do have my eye on your abilities—not your talent for theft, of course, but your gift as a prowler. This is the royal capital, and there's no telling how many people are watching this place, watching every one of us, for any number of reasons. Byron is a knight who only knows how to fight head-on; Rebecca only knows fireballs; I haven't fully recovered my strength. So I truly do need you—a Shadow Master of consummate skill. Satisfied with that answer, Miss Amber?"

The latter half of Gao Yang's speech had turned earnest, and Amber, caught up in that earnestness, looked momentarily dazed.

She truly had not expected Gao Yang to speak to her so seriously. As a petty thief—a rogue born with a minus-one reputation penalty where all nobles were concerned—she would never in a thousand years have imagined being entreated so earnestly by a nobleman.

And by none other than that legendary Grand Duke Cecil.

She could dine out on this for half a year!

"You... you've put it that way, so I suppose I'll help," the half-elf lady said, turning her face away a little unnaturally. "But praise me a few more times, would you? That part about 'Shadow Master, consummate skill'—say it a couple more times and I won't charge you..."

Gao Yang turned and looked at Rebecca. "Can you control a fireball so precisely that it lands square on someone's face without actually killing them?"

Amber: "?!"

Amber was spared the ordeal of a fireball to the face, however, for the butler of the Blaine family chose that moment to appear.

"My lord, you have a visitor," James said, bowing with impeccable courtesy. "Prince Edmund has come to call."