Chapter 9: Candy Caper

Cynthia skipped through the halls of the mall, Severa and Laurent trailing behind her. Gaius was commonly referred to as 'uncle' amongst the group for his connection to all of them. Whenever he was around, he always brought them on fun and interesting adventures through the city.

"Where exactly is Gaius, anyway?" Asked Severa. "Did he mention why he was coming to the mall?"

"Knowing him, he's at Confection Carnival. I don't know if this was intentional, but Cynthia's taking us in the right direction."

Confection Carnival was the largest candy store in Ylisstol. Of all of the candy stores in the city, Confection Carnival had the largest selection. Most of the people that came to the store came for some of the exclusive candy that they sold. It was these candies that made the store so successful.

Laurent was right about what Cynthia was planning. She led them right to Confection Carnival, where they found Gaius standing on the other side of the floor, looking up at the store. Cynthia ran over to him, weaving through the people that were getting off and on of the escalator.

"Uncle Gaius!" Cynthia was holding back a strong urge to hug Gaius.

He was never fond of hugs, and the first few times she did it, he simply told her not to do it. Severa and Laurent joined them, and Gaius looked over at them.

"Oh, hey guys. What're you doing here?"

Severa chuckled and crossed her arms. "Why are you asking us? You're the guy in his forties looking at a candy store!"

"I am a candy connoisseur! It would only make sense that I'm observing this store. "Besides, there's something I have to do." He began walking towards the store, and Cynthia followed right behind him.

"Are you doing something fun and cool, Uncle Gaius?" Asked an enthusiastic Cynthia as she followed him.

"I guess you could say that. You might not want to get involved, though."

"You're a well respected veteran, Gaius." Said Laurent. "What could you be getting yourself involved in, anyway?"

Severa grabbed his sleeve. "Have some faith, Laurent! Gaius won't do anything bad!"

He glanced back at them, smiling. "Don't count your chickens before they hatch, deary." He stopped in front of the store and looked around. "Want to hear what your Uncle Gaius has in store, kiddies?"

Cynthia nodded fervently. Severa calmly bobbed her head, and Laurent simply stood alongside them.

Gaius pointed to a poster on the window. A golden piece of candy wrapped in a bee striped wrapper was above the word 'New' in a very dynamic speech bubble. The words 'Royal Honey Glob' were above it.

"The Royal Honey Glob is a candy made from Exalted Silver Bee Honey. It's the finest honey in Ylisse, and arguably the entire planet! The rarity of the main ingredient has led to these things being super expensive."

Laurent's eyes widened. "You're planning on…! I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that!"

"Calm down!" Severa said. "If he does rob them, it's not like this company will go bankrupt!" She looked over at him nervously. "Right?"

"Yeah! The candy makers make all sorts of stuff! Even if all of the Royal Honey Globs got scooped up, there other products will save them. Besides, unless they used every piece of gold they had to make them and then sent every single piece to this store, there will still be plenty of Royal Honey Globs in Ylisse for them to profit off of!"

Cynthia's mouth began to water. "I want to help! I can't wait to eat them…!"

"Don't be preposterous!" Scolded Laurent. "With all of the candy gone, he would be able to make a huge profit!"

"That may be true Laurent, but I'd never do that! I'm keeping all of that legendary candy to myself!"

Severa sweat dropped. "That's what you're worried about? And not the fact that the cops will find you in a few days. Y'know, having a huge stock of Royal Honey Blobs right after Confection Carnival was robbed."

"True." Gaius nodded. "You all know about my plan now. You have two choices: help me or be disposed of."

Cynthia and Severa raised their hands. Laurent stared at them, stunned. He sighed and slowly raised his own hand.

"Perfect!" He looked at the crowd around them. "It would appear that no one heard us. But, we should really go somewhere private. We can't have some candy loving kid or older candy appreciater hearing the plan and ratting us out. Somewhere full of bitter old people should be good. Any ideas?"

"We could just go to my room in the palace!" Cynthia suggested. "I don't think anyone will listen in there! At least, they won't listen in and take it seriously."

Gaius put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "Perfect! Just for that, you get half of the haul."


The four sat in Cynthia's large room in the royal palace. She, Severa and Laurent sat on her large bed while Gaius stood in front of a blueprint that was put on the wall. Laurent looked as though he didn't want to be present.

"Okay, everybody. This is a copy of Confection Carnival's blueprints." There were blue areas shaped like pie slices on the blueprints, as well as colored lines. "The pie pieces are the range of their security cameras. The lines are their guard's patrol routes."

Laurent noticed that there were few cameras and guards. "It's rather lax on the security, isn't it?"

"This is a candy store we're talking about." Severa responded. "What were you expecting?"

"You have a point. What's the plan, Gaius? Can't just walk in, can we?"

"Actually, we can. We just have it time it really well."

Laurent raised his hand. "When you said 'dispose of' earlier, what exactly did you mean?"

"I had originally intended for this to be a solo gig, but thought that it would be harder for you guys to rat me out if it meant incriminating yourself. I don't really need you at all. I guess that if you want to leave, you can."

"You're really trusting us, aren't you?" Laurent sighed and stood from Cynthia's bed. "I apologize, but I must withdraw. I won't say a word of this to anyone. You have my word."

"I think I'll drop out too. I just realized that doing this means leaving Inigo with Cosmo and Reina. I won't tell anyone either, though."

"Good, good." Gaius rubbed the back of his neck. "I really hope this doesn't end up biting me in the ass. Laurent, they'll think it's perfectly normal if you're the last person out of her room. Stick around until then, okay?"


It was very late at night. Severa sat on the couch with Inigo and the cats. The next day was a national holiday, and she didn't have work. As they sat in the dark, the light of the T.V being the only thing illuminating the room, the doorbell rang.

"I wonder who it could be this late." Severa opened the door to see Lucina and Officer Grant, who she met a few days ago. "Oh, hey, Lucy."

"Good evening, Severa. Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?" Her eyes were on Grant. "Couldn't this wait until tomorrow?"

"The sooner it gets done the better. Anyway, did you know anything about a scheme to rob Confection Carnival?"

Inigo looked over the couch, waiting for her answer. After a short moment of silence he said, "So?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I ran into Cynthia at the store. When she saw me she panicked and fell flat on her face. I asked her what happened, and she said something about you, Gaius and Laurent. She was crying, so I couldn't tell."

"Well…"

"There's no need to worry." Said Grant. "Nothing was taken, so as long as anyone who knew about it doesn't say anything, no one will have to be punished. Besides, we're talking about candy that's like, ten gold a piece."

"Forty-five." Corrected Lucina.

"My apologies, forty-five." He looked at her in disbelief. "S-seriously, forty-five gold? For a single piece?"

"Yup."

Grant cleared his throat. "Now I understand why someone would want to rob the place. Anyway, what's the story?"

"Gaius just wanted the candy. Being cheap and all. No one's getting in trouble?"

Lucina shook her head. "Like Grant said, nothing was taken. We should be able to pull some strings. Thanks for the information, Severa. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah."

Severa closed the door and returned to the couch.

"Really? A bunch of candy?"

Severa shrugged. "Gaius can be pretty weird sometimes. Hand me the remote."