"I'm here to see the prisoner."
The man sitting behind a wooden table looked up at me lazily, and then quickly changed his stance. "S-Sena-san."
"The prisoner," I reasserted.
The guard, who was now visibly distraught, shifted the small stack of papers in front of him, and then spoke in the same manner. "W-Which one, if I may ask, S-Sena-san?"
"Wulf."
"Ah, him; Lady Dustiness was here just yesterday." He sighed. "Seems like a popular man, this one." I narrowed my eyes. Upon seeing this, he cleared his throat nervously, and said, "Down the stairs; it's the second to last cell on the right."
Once the guard opened the door, I made my way down the stairs. After a few minutes of descending the spiral staircase, I came to a corridor housing the prisoners. The area was heavily guarded with sentries placed every few cells and others patrolling. Following the guard's instruction, I followed the hall to the second to last cell and turned to the guard in front of it.
"I need to ask the prisoner a few questions; however, I'll need some privacy. Is there any way you can clear the area?"
The guard raised a brow. "Sorry, who are you?"
"Forgive me, I'm Sena, the Royal Prosecutor."
"Ah, Sena-san. Not that I doubt your identity, but I'll have to ask you for some form of identification, if you don't mind."
"No, it's only reasonable…however"—I lowered my head in slight embarrassment—"I actually don't have it on me at the moment."
"Ah, that's regrettable; if that's the case, then I'll have to ask you to go fetch it before I can allow you to see the prisoner; you know, policy and all."
"Umu, of course, however, I'd feel I'd be remiss to not tell you that this prisoner's sentence date relies heavily on the information that I get from him. The royal family has tasked me with gathering that very information for a speedy date of sentencing, so, you see…delaying this…well, I'd have to put it in my report that you were responsible for such a setback."
The color seemed to drain from the man's face. He let out an audible gulp. "I-I see, w-well Sena-san is a notable figure, s-so it should be fine if it were just this once."
"Umu. You have my gratitude."
The sentry gave a quick nod and signaled to the others to clear the corridor. After they did, I turned to the man sitting patiently in the cell; he stared at me with mostly careless indifference, but behind that I could sense a morsel of curiosity.
"Not bad," He said, a tiny smirk appearing on his face.
"I'm actually surprised you could tell," I said as I walked up to the bars.
"You could change your face and the tone of your voice, but smell is a lot harder to mask."
"Humph." I was impressed. "I keep forgetting you're half Lycan."
"Anyways, what are you here for; come to laugh at me?"
I chuckled a bit. "No, not quite; you're my employer, doing that would be quite foolish. I'm actually here to let you out."
He raised his brow. "Really now? You think letting me out of here will get you back in my good graces?"
"Not entirely, however, I know you'd me a favor."
He scowled at me. "Favor? I did you a favor by letting you live."
"Big words coming from someone sitting inside a cell." As I saw him about to get up, I quickly continued, "Look, I'm not asking for much; I just need you to pull a few strings so I can get back into the underground. After this botched job, I'm in a bad way."
Hearing me say this, he relaxed. "Humph, is that all? Sure, I'll see what I can do for you then."
"Good. Here, take this." I handed him an item through the bars.
He glanced at it briefly, and then looked back up at me.
Without letting him speak, I answered, "It's a powerful magical item designed to breach powerful locks and barriers." As I said this, I saw him move the item to the lock. "W-Wait, not now!"
He raised a brow.
"There'll be a trial for the girl who was feeding you information soon. On that day, I'll raise a commotion; use it to escape."
Wulf stared at me for a second, and then sneered. "You know how that'll end, don't you?"
"…I don't know what you're talking about."
He shrugged. "Eh, not my problem. Maybe you'll get lucky, who knows?"
"Luck? Humph, though I have a bit of it, it isn't anything worth relying on. Only fools would rely on something so fickle."
"Ah, so I take it you're not a believer in the Goddess Eris?"
"Even if I was, I still wouldn't place my faith in something that could change at a moment's notice."
He smirked at my reply. "You'd best get going before those guards realize who you really are."
I looked away slightly. "…you don't have to worry about me. It's not like I'm an amateur."
"But you did mess up."
"And so did you."
"…"
"…"
"Ah whatever. Hurry up and scurry along spider."
I took one last look at the hulking figure huddled up against the wall, and then left.