153: Reasoning

Reasoning

A brief moment of silence followed his outburst, and then, Alex and Mors looked at each other, their eyebrows raised as far as they could go and their eyes as wide as possible, with their lips twitching as if they were suppressing a laugh.2

Daneel scowled, quite puzzled due to this reaction that he had not expected and the fact that the two had cooked up some inside joke between themselves on his expense. Glancing at him and spotting his displeasure, the thief raised his hands apologetically, then lowered those same hands to his stomach as he burst out laughing.

The elf followed. Where Alex's was true and rough, his took a high, lilting tone, pleasant to the ears but also foreign, as if it were something imported from a faraway land. It still felt good to see his friends in such high spirits, though, and after a few seconds, Daneel actually joined in, laughing due to helplessness rather than humor.

When it all finally quieted down, the elf was the one who spoke after turning to Alex.

"I should have known better than to bet with a thief, but I thought I had this in the bag. Here you go."

With a bemused look, Daneel watched as a vajram appeared from somewhere within the elf's green cloak and disappeared into Alex's black one. Alex's grin widened as he pocketed this treasure, and he even had the gall to wink at Daneel as if to thank him for this windfall.

Unable to control himself anymore, Daneel stood up and folded his hands, demanding an answer. Alex was the one who obliged, backing away to the very corner of the room as if he was preparing to run if needed.

"Well… while you were busy leading our party and making every effort to look like a prime Ushanbo, the two of us were chatting between ourselves using that spell Mors cast before so that we could just speak under our breath. I saw the way you looked to the chests, and I knew that you would look for every way to not part from them. It's classic greed, and although I suspect that it might be different in your case, I just knew that you would come up with something. Well, I was right!"

With a nod and a wide smile, the elf said, "I knew that you hated to spend money, but I thought you didn't want to stir up more chaos. Still, it was a good bet, and I have no problem with losing. Let's talk about this, though. We've already stirred up enough problems in these islands. Why attract the attention of the Garbonors even more?"

Daneel had been quite surprised to find that he had been read in such a thorough manner by the thief, and he took this as a testament to indicate that he had truly found the right companions who could understand who he was in such a short period of time. For a brief moment, he found himself dwelling on the memories of his family from Angaria, but shaking his head to get rid of the despair that would soon follow if he thought about them too much, he sat back down on the bed and bent back lazily while using his hands as support and said, "Of course I thought about that. The Garbonors will be coming here anyway to check what happened to Larefa. If there's no other problem, they might focus their full efforts on this issue. On the other hand, if there's chaos all around, I hope that their resources will be spread thin, or that they would at least decide that the disappearance of a small island, which is apparently something that happens now and then, is not a problem that is very pressing. In fact, the more the chaos, the more our chances of escaping successfully without being harmed in any way. But first, before we can do anything, we need to confirm something."

Bending forward, Daneel took out the star-shaped crimson crystal given by the beggar king out of his pocket and spoke into it clearly, enunciating each word. On the way, they had established a certain communication method with the beggar king, who always found it hard to be alone so that he could talk to them and answer any questions they had. It was apparently much easier to just indicate whether something was true or false, and so, Daneel had simply sent him a statement whose answer he hoped would be in their favor.

When the crystal flashed once, a grin came on his face and he stood up while putting it away. Folding his hands behind his back, he nodded to himself and said, "We are lucky. Well, I don't know whether luck has anything to do with it, but there are no other Ushanbos anywhere near Marillein. We can use their name in any way we wish, so the only thing really constraining us… is our own imagination."

The elf's eyes seemed to sparkle as he said that last part, and even Alex stepped forward, smelling a challenge. Another thing that Daneel really liked about the two was that they were both intellectuals who loved to use an opportunity where they could solve a problem, but in this area, Daneel reigned supreme, so he didn't really need any of their help.

They could assist him in fine-tuning the details of the plan, though, but first, he had to come up with something that he could base the scam on. He had performed countless ones in his journey so far, but the excitement that sprung up inside him as he began to narrow down his options was really something else.

The best scams were those that you couldn't see from a mile away, but after it was done, it would all be as clear as if it had been there in front of you all this while. The best scams were also those where the ones being scammed truly deserved it, and Daneel had already passed his judgment on the Ushanbos as soon as he had heard that they were just an empire of slavers, profiting off of the blood and sweat of the Islanders while they rose more and more in life, forgetting who they had once been.

He paced the room, his head bent and his eyes wandering while the other two waited patiently. They had looked a bit crestfallen when they had realized that they were only going to be able to discuss the details without being involved in the thought process that went into creating the plan, but Daneel wasn���t ready to say that many of his inspirations came from things he had experienced back on Earth, or even on Angaria.

The best scams were also those that were fun to carry out, with elements of danger that could be handled carefully so that they would never become an issue. Everything he had done so far revolved in his mind, round and round, and he kept all the memories of his own time inside the main island of Marillein firmly in his vision. The goal was clear: they needed to leave with the items they wanted, and the money that needed to be paid for them. The beggar king could not be relied on to help too much, as he would be placed in danger by the mere knowledge that something sinister might be going on. Hence, it was best if he be a victim more than anything else, and that meant that they could only rely on themselves.

Even after some time passed, nothing came to Daneel, but he didn't despair. Instead, he turned to the vault of knowledge that only he possessed in this entire world, and in just a minute, he knew exactly what they were going to do.

The moment he made the decision, a thought came to him, and although he was really tempted to say it out loud, he savored it within and chuckled to himself.

'Thank the heavens they don't have movies over here, or I would have been placed in front of a copyright court before I could take even a single breath. It's time to re-enact one of the most classic heists from Hollywood… and the stage is all set for its debut. Let's do this!'

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