Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

An hour passed after the elects had gathered on the top floor of their tower. The already cramped meeting room was still waiting to get even more cramped. Justice Host hadn't arrived yet, and the time for the meeting was slowly running out. The toss of Garcia's coin could be heard in the room along with the mumbling and muttering of the other elects of Inktaus.

However, with the judge not being present, all they could do was wait–something none of them except Garcia were good at.

"Oh, for the love of!" Slamming his colossal fist–twice the size of a human man–Ironheart shattered his desk under his beastly fist. Grunting under the armor that covered his massive body inside dark red metal, he huffed and puffed as the sound of his minotaurian nose ring could be heard, hitting the interior of his helmet like clockwork. "Where is he?! I have more important things to do than sit here twiddling thumbs!"

"Like what? Lodging all of your work to me? Is that what you do, Ironheart?" Still tossing her coin, Garcia took a shot at the beastman without even looking at him.

"What did you say?!" He screamed in response, but before he could do anymore–the chaos of the bunch decided to take over the meeting.

"Oh, forget her, we should start the meeting without the judge." Walking in the middle of the arc of tables, Eren stood in front of them all. Dressed in a blue suit with golden buttons and a neat tie, he spread his thin arms and glanced up at them with a snarky smile. "We're here to discuss what to do with these horrors walking amongst us, remember? Better not to test each other's patience, or who knows, even when one of us has been taken over, we wouldn't know due to these constant explosive interactions."

Combing his short green hair back with his fingers, Eren turned his head towards Garcia, who'd been staring into thin air for quite a while.

"Any news from your part, constable?"

Waving her hand, she didn't say a word. Not because she didn't have anything to report, but because she knew that the faithful of Fortuna wouldn't be taken seriously anyway. She wanted to speak, but only when both the judges were present; otherwise, whatever she said would later be thrown off when Justice got wind of it.

"Well then, if you have nothing to report, why are we even here?" Turning to the others, Eren's smile widened. "Seems like we're done here then."

"Wait!" Finally speaking up, Garcia raised her hand and looked at the fair, golden-eyed elf. "What about you and Ironheart? Don't you guys have something to report? As far as I'm aware, someone has been crossing the invisibility barrier for nearly a month at this point. Coming and going as they please, we've never had uninvited guests like this in nearly half an aeon. So? What's going on? Are you guys going to answer, or am I the only one being constantly judged here for work that's not even my duty?"

"Garcia…" Raising his hand halfway–Judge Dealer gestured for her to calm her tone. And although at first she seemed annoyed, after a quick glance at the goat beastman, she took a deep breath and did as he'd advised. "Now, we have monsters at our doorsteps breaking through the invisibility barrier and monsters inside our very homes. There is hardly any time to quarrel like children. And since Judge Host isn't here, I suggest we return to work, lest someone has something else less confrontational to say."

"I do!"

"I would like to speak as well."

The vampire and the overseer of the market both raised their hands. Recognizing them both, Judge Dealer gestured for Ditsy to go first. Rising from her seat, the pale vampire looked around at Ironheart, Eren, and, at last, Garcia. She had business with them all, but alas, the one she decided to talk to directly was the woman who shared the same faith as her.

"Garcia, if you do manage to catch those beasts, would you please bring their bodies–dead or alive–to me? I would love to conduct some experiments and try to find out why they are suddenly evolving into perfect mimics of human character." Getting a brief nod from the elf, she turned her attention to everyone else. "Usually, as you all know, horrors coagulate around a keeper. But obviously that isn't the case here, so how come they're working uniformly without a keeper to issue orders or control them? It's strange behavior, and we can't let them get any smarter or we could never tell a real person from a horror."

Having said her piece, the vampire took her seat with a sated smile. Her fingers were itching to get a hand on those monsters, to tear into them and find out where things went wrong and what the hell had happened to make them independent from a keeper.

"Now my turn," shifting in his seat that he could barely fit in, Helm Goldtooth wiped his greasy face and began to talk. "All of this is costing us so much gold. Why don't you lazy folks just get it done with so we can go back to counting gold instead of spending it?"

Staring at him with a look of disgust, everyone questioned why he was even there. Worse, why was he ever given a blessing by the goddess of commerce? All he ever did was sit and lie, stuff his face, and sell favors in exchange for ladies, especially to those in relationships. Blackmail and the worst of crimes, he himself was responsible for, but since the majority of the elects served the same goddess, his devious deeds were just swept under the rug.

Patting his red suit with golden threads and collar, fat man Helm was the first to get up. Taking a step outside of his desk, he stretched his hand sideways and opened a teleportation portal.

"I'll go and do some inventory now; you guys pull yourselves together, pffft!" Insulting them all, the laziest and the most arrogant of the bunch walked into the portal and disappeared alongside it.

"Ughh…whatever, we will do this meeting later," Ironheart complained, and while walking out of the room, his eyes stayed glued to the dainty elven female.

Garcia, however, didn't recoil from his gaze. Instead, she stared right back as if daring him to do something. But of course, with Judge Dealer still being in the room, he couldn't lift his hammer to bring it down on her head.

Alas, as the meeting was adjourned, Garcia decided to go to her room and get some rest. The thought of checking on Justice never appeared in her head–something she would soon regret for her coin in that meeting had been landing on heads. Heads quite literally being a head; that is, the skull of death.