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Kat could see the moment Sue recognised who it was, her eyes lit up and she dashed into Kat’s arms. “Kat! It’s so good to see you! Is Lily here? Did Sylvie’s party go well? I mean, I got your message that said it went well but I want details!” cheered Sue.

Kat laughed as Lily hopped out of Kat’s new backpack to settle on the two Succubi’s shoulder, letting her rub her face on Sue’s for a bit. “Oh hi Lily! It’s good to see you too!” smiled Sue. “It’s so nice to know who I’m working with on a Contract, and doubly so when I actually like them! You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve had to work with people I dislike. I mean, at least I know them. It’s better then being all awkward around a strange, but this is so much better! Though… I do wonder what we’ll be doing,”

Sue continued to ramble as Kat laughed and they separated. “It’s good to see you as well Sue. Sylvie’s party was good, though as I mentioned in my letters to you and Kamiko it was sorta gate crashed by Vivian’s parents. Which… well it wasn’t really a problem it just complicated things for a while. Vivian’s parents are lovely, and I got along with them quite well… though I’m not sure if they were totally happy with how things turned out…”

“Why is that?” asked Sue.

Kat sighed, “Well… they showed up randomly as a bit of punishment for Vivian, adopting two people without talking to her parents about it. I mean, they send letters but Vivian didn’t even try to call about it. This meant that Vivian was busy for pretty much the whole visit… but I think that just made Roxy and Vivian sad more than anything. Then there’s the fact that they had the whole ‘magic is real’ thing to deal with…

“And they were rather unhappy with the presents they got Sylvie in the end. They got something for her to make bracelets but… well… they were expecting a somewhat intelligent 9 going 10-year-old but they got a genius with more interest in high level physics textbooks. Apparently, they thought Vivian was exaggerating Sylvie’s intelligence a bit…”

“Ouch,” winced Sue.

“Yeah… so… that didn’t go well. Plus CoG was a big hit with Sylvie so instead of bonding with her grandparents she just spent time figuring that out with Callisto… which is fine… but Sylvie’s also pretty pragmatic. So when Sylvie just casually waved them off at the end… they took a big hit of emotional damage. Honestly, while Vivian did get punished, Roxy probably came out slightly worse in the exchange because Sylvie was treating them more like… hmm… visiting dignitaries they like then family?” explained Kat.

.....

“Yeah I can see how that’d be a pretty big blow to the grandparents. I still think it was worth the visit for them. It’s the first time you all met up right?” asked Sue and Kat nodded a ‘yes’ in response. “See, then I’m sure they were happy just to meet you all. Though… I’ll admit it sounds like it didn’t quite go to plan for them, that’s just life.”

“I suppose it is,” said Kat slowly as she took in the room quickly. Seeing no sign of anybody, Kat decided to just ask. “Do you know what’s up with the room? Like, it’s clearly a trap… or well sort of. We can’t get out… but there’s a bunch of comfortable chairs, free food and it all certainly looks nice…” Kat trailed off without much else to say.

“Ah… well… I’ve never been summoned by someone with the money to splurge on a room like this but my parents have told me about them. The basic idea is to take our measure,” said Sue.

“Right… but why?” asked Kat.

Sue made a ‘so-so’ gesture, “Eh a little of this, a little of that. Mum explained a few reasons to me. The first one is that, you can summon a demon but the more specific you are, the more it costs. It turns out that it can, in some circumstances at least, be cheaper to summon and dismiss a demon without even attempting to contract them a few times rather then make the summon specifically find the demon they want,”

“I thought we wouldn’t get sent on missions we’re unwilling to accept?” replied Kat.

Sue nodded, “Indeed but just because we can do as asked by the contract, doesn’t mean we’ll do everything they want or complete it how they want it done. Say… they need someone killed. So they summon a demon capable of killing X person, but instead a nice, quiet assassin demon like a Succubus or a Shadow, they get a follower of Wrath that’s perfectly capable of killing the person in question… and the rest of the city.”

“Right… but wouldn’t it be better to just… be a bit more specific?” returned Kat.

Sue shrugged, “I don’t know if it happens often, but Mum said it CAN be better, not that it usually is, or that it’s a good idea. There are other reasons as well though. It’s always good to know the temperament of the people you’re working with. Know what levers to push. Take the food for example.

“It’s split based on meat, and fruit. If I only ate fruit dishes they know that I’d be happier with fruit. So to subtly insult me they might provide me with a meat side dish, or they might offer me some rare fruit if I complete the contract and then an extra task on top of that. That being said, it’d also tell them if either of us were Gluttony aligned demons. We’d just go and eat everything and call that good,”

“I still don’t see why this is worth the effort,” said Kat, Lily nodding as well.

Sue however, sighed. “I guess it’s not something I really understand either Kat but summoning a demon is a HUGE investment. I’m talking like… anything between ‘fancy new car’ to ‘new house’ all the way up to ‘bankrupt a country’ type of money. If you’re summoning demons, especially if you’re summing a LOT of demons, building a nice room to figure out how best to phrase the contract is worth a lot of money.

“Like… let’s take the assassination again. If they find a demon that’s seems to be in a good mood, they might press for ‘Kill X person, Y person and leave Z person unharmed’ but if the demon in question is grumpy they’d have to settle for ‘Kill X without being seen’. Plus, this room can be reused. As nice as the furniture is, none of its enchanted. The food is clearly well prepared, and it smells nice but it’s mostly mundane food with no magic in it. The room itself I suspect is indestructible, but even if it’s NOT, as soon as a demon showed they could break it down, they’d be banished. The risk of letting them get out in that case is much too high,”

*I guess I never did think about how much a demon is worth to people. We’re expensive to hire clearly… and… well I suppose I never thought what ‘expensive’ meant when it comes to a multi-dimensional scale. It makes me wonder how much it cost Minor’s mother to have me guard her. At the time I didn’t think too much about it… but it might’ve been a good portion of the country’s wealth.*

[Perhaps. I mean, you were just Rank 1 back then so it might not have been too bad… but I see where you’re going. You were using a more ‘Earth human’ style of determining what was expensive. Heck, you might’ve been judging it all as a, no offence, ‘teenage orphan’ instead of someone who takes high level mercenary contracts in distant lands.]

*Weird way of phrasing it… but I do see what you mean. We’re the nuclear option in a lot of circumstances. You don’t summon a demon for casual stuff. Though… I do wonder why I was summoned for the tournament if that’s the case.*

[You were just Rank 1 originally so that definitely helped. Plus… it might be specifically because Thyme is running it this time around and that they COULD do it before new rules came it. It might be a net less in money once everything is all said and done, but the grand prize would be worth it. Plus, it was a short notice thing remember? Something kept happening to their final member.]

*Indeed.*