As Christina walked down the street of the slums, Koko was tempted to jump down from the buildings and ask her about what had just happened before she noticed that the girl had now stopped in front of a group of hungry looking children dressed in torn clothing. Kneeling down beside one of them that seemed almost asleep, Christina dug her hand into a small pouch attached to her belt before bending down and placing what looked like coins in their hand. However, after looking up at their benefactor, the child's face suddenly contorted in anger as they threw the coins down at Christine's feet.
"Why bother now?! You've already taken everything from us!" The child, which turned out to be a small girl, yelled before getting to her feet and running into one of the many back alleys. "You're not a hero at all!"
Standing still and gripping her own hands tightly enough to bare white knuckles, Christina looked incredibly frustrated from the way that Koko saw things. And when Christina once again began to walk down the street, Koko thought that she'd seen enough before she headed back towards the blacksmith from earlier. After seeing that the family that had once been inside was nowhere to be found, Koko jumped down to the street to ask the next best people about what had just happened. Because with the obvious dislike on their faces from the scene, she figured that the guards that had done nothing to stop it must know something at least.
"Excuse me!" Koko called out to the guards, who were thankfully still stationed at the intersection as it must have been their post.
"What's the matter?" The first guard asked.
"Nothing's wrong, I'd just like to ask your opinion on something." Koko replied. "It's about what happened to that blacksmith over there."
"It's absolutely disgusting, that's our opinions on it." The first guard stated while sneering in the direction of the other guards surrounding the building. "Even without any evidence, all the church has to do is make a claim that someone's a heretic or criminal and they can confiscate everything that a person owns and say that their doing them a kindness. Normally it's not so bad, but lately that hero has been 'liberating' at least one building per district every month. It's put a lot of normal families on the streets with the once respectable citizens becoming nothing but beggars..."
"Can't you do anything to stop it?" Koko asked, concerned that such a thing was happening.
"Nothing at all." The guard spat again. "The church has always existed to help the hero, who has always in turn helped the kingdom. They're old laws, but as mere guardsmen we can't do anything to interfere if she's the one supervising it."
"I see..." Koko said thoughtfully, though she only grasped the basic picture of the situation. "Just to be sure, when did all of this start happening?"
"A few months ago when that priest and the hero arrived at Goldgate." The guardsman sighed before looking at Koko curiously. "Why do you want to know so bad?"
"I'm just doing a little personal investigation is all." Koko replied. "Thanks for all the help. I'll let you get back to your job!"
"The entire city is a giant nervous wreck because no one knows if they'll be the next target or not, though we do know for a fact that several of the families that were involved were innocent." The guardsman continued as he waved in farewell. "I don't know if you'll turn up anything, but if you somehow manage to stop this, then the entire city would be grateful."
"Thanks, I'll keep it in mind!" Koko replied before running away, gaining some distance between them before she stopped and sat down on a nearby crate in order to think things through. From what it sounded like, the 'hero' was using her status to falsely convict people and take all of their things. However, after following Christina, she assumed that the girl had no intent of this at all as she couldn't think of any reason that she would be troubled by it otherwise. Rather, it almost seemed as if she had been being ushered by Father Celdric to do it... Perhaps the man himself needed to be investigated. But then, even if she discovered that he was corrupted, no one would believe her, right? If anything, they might just see it as an act of jealously towards her roommate, seeing as she was the weakest in the school and Christina was ranked second.
However, before she got to any of that, Koko knew that she needed more information. If she wanted to stop people being unfairly robbed of their possessions, then not only would she have to look into Father Celdric, but also Christina again. She didn't know what kind of relationship that the two shared, and it was entirely possible for Christina to side with the man, even if she seemed to regret what she was doing. However, Koko didn't think that the girl would do that. A person that didn't regret what they'd done wouldn't have attempted to help the kid in the street, after all.
Wondering just where she could go to get all of this information, Koko sighed as she only thought of one place that may have been keeping tabs on the subject. And after coming to a decision, she began walking through the streets on her way to the castle while hoping that she wouldn't have to encounter her long-time stalker. Though even if she did, this was more important, and Koko wanted to help the people that were being victimized.
Heading to the castle, Koko couldn't help but once again marvel at the towers as they loomed imposingly overhead. Though, she had to pay attention to where she was stepping as she started walking across the castle's moat and the wooden drawbridge that allowed access across it. And when she did, she suddenly had to look up at the spears in front of her as she was halted by the guards at the front gates.
"Halt. State your name and business within the castle." The guards demanded and they crossed their spears and denied her entry, and Koko was actually surprised as they treated her like an adult intruder rather than a lost child as she'd figured that they would have.
"Koko Cryner, Second Daughter of Baron Benson Cryner and friend to Prince James Trion." Koko introduced herself. "I'm here to see Ganton."
"Do you have proof of identity?" The guard asked, and Koko was once again thankful of her adventurers card as she showed it to the man and he nodded to himself before she found herself being led inside. And rather than heading towards the throne room like she had last time, she was instead escorted in the opposite direction before she entered what she guessed was one of the castle's many wide towers. However, instead of going up the tower like she'd thought she was going to, the guards led her down the stairs underground until the sunlight from the windows above eventually disappeared. Now, the only light in the area was being produced from the torches along the walls, and Koko almost felt as if she were being taken prisoner before they finally reached a large room filled with desks that all had mountains of paperwork stacked on top of them. And even though there was almost a hundred workers inside, everything was eerily quiet as she walked inside and her footsteps began echoing throughout the space.
"This is as far as we can lead you.... Ganton is at the far end." One of the guards stated nervously, looking around the room like a frightened rabbit before both of them retreated and closed the wooden door lightly behind them as the left. Now that they were gone, Koko felt as if they'd just left her to the wolves as everyone in the room seemed to stop working on their paperwork all at the same time and turned to stare at her. And with all of their eyes shining in the torchlight, the situation seemed incredibly creepy before Koko took a hesitant step forward. Though, when she did, she only just now noticed something.
In front of her, the entire floor was completely covered in dust with what looked like some kind of ink underneath of it, almost as if it were a trap for any intruders. And after spotting it, Koko then noticed several scattered desks along her path that seemed to be strangely empty before she smiled to herself as she figured out what this was. And so, after the discovery of the trap, Koko braced herself and finally started jumping from desk to desk, careful to both avoid the floor as well as to make as little noise as possible until she finally reached the far end of the room where a small area in front of the door there had been cleared from the dust and ink. Though when she got there, the door opened automatically and Ganton appeared in front of her, eyeing her cynically.
"Not many pass our test, and even less than that pass it without even knowing that there's a test to begin with." Ganton nodded at her approvingly. "If you ever grow tired of your strange techniques, come and see me. You may have potential as a rogue."
"Thanks, but that's not what I'm here for this time." Koko replied, hoping to kill his cold expression with her smile.
"Then what are you here for?" Ganton asked, seemingly unaffected.
"I need a favor." Koko answered.
"While you may be worth something in the future, there is currently no benefit from helping the second daughter of a Baron." Ganton sighed before he started closing the door which most likely led into his office.
"Even if this favor may expose corruption at our local temple?" Koko asked, knowing that the church and the kingdom were almost always at odds with each other seeing as the two almost at the same amount of power within the kingdom. And as she added that last bit of information, the door to Ganton's office suddenly stopped closing before she heard him sigh again from behind it.
"I suppose that I can at least listen..." Ganton replied.