I was sure that the Whites were eating Fabien's lunch. That was fine to a certain extent. The Whites were going to be major backers in this situation. As long as they did a faithful job in keeping all their money flowing, it not really matter. Everyone could get filthy rich from this. But, at the end of the day, I had no way to actually tell if it was a good deal or not. I was a phantom thief. I never handled the pawning off of the hard assets and the money laundering. He was the one to help the casing of the place and the actual heist. When the meeting was finally over, Fabien was not looking very happy about it. He shook hands with them. The gloves were still on. I smiled and bowed slightly towards them. "Thank you for taking this second meeting." I said. The Whites seemed pleased. "Were you able to follow along with what we were saying at all?" the patriarch asked me. "Frankly, it all went over my head. As I have told you all before, I like investigating and executing on infiltration schemes. The other aspects of my job were never my concern. I'll defer my opinion to my young master." I smiled wide.
As we were walked down, Gerald came to us. "I hope your meeting went well." he said. I smiled and said "I'm not sure. My young master is a clever man. I'm sure he was able to make a nice deal with your family. After all, this is a major opportunity." Gerald's attention switched from me to him. "I remember when you asked for a blessing from me. Not many people would want something like that. It meant a lot." he said warmly. Fabien stiffened and simply said "Sir Rhombus was the owner. He believed himself too lowborn and impious to have it blessed directly by you. I decided to indulge him for his good work." Gerald's attention was now fully back on me. "That's not the case anymore. You saved my life and you are so kind to others. Even to the Colorless like me and my family. That makes you one of the best people to receive a holy blessing. You should have more confidence in yourself as a knight." he said. I rubbed the back of my neck. Genuine praise like that was a rare thing for a phantom thief. I was happy. I said "You honor me with your words, Your Grace. I will live up to them."
Being the center of attention was fine for me. I was also able to take the focus off of Fabien's stiff attitude around them. "I am loathe to leave such warm hospitality, but I need to escort my young master home." I said after an hour of talking with them on other subjects. They were merchants and not warriors, so they were very pleased with me telling the story of our journey to the capital. I could see that Fabien's patience would not last for another hour of fun and games. I had been using him as a great launching pad for ideas and interactions. His dry and often cold responses contrasted with my dynamic and passionate recounting that it was almost comedic. They all escorted us out warmly and invited us back to visit at anytime. I knew that I would if I had the time. Fabien probably would never. After we had walked for 10 minutes, he snatched at his gloves and roughly tossed them to the ground. I hurriedly picked them up. "Sir Fabien! Do you know how valuable hand crafter gloves are in my world!? It is the craftmanship that counts. You should treat them nicer." I scolded. He scoffed.
