"No."
"I'm sorry, what?" the normally unflappable countance didn't visibly slip, but the tone was incredulous.
The scene set had been perfect. Take one monarch, one maid/advisor, one supposed heir to the kingdom - not that many actually knew - one overly sentimental member of Artai's military, one head of a foreign state - though that was more happenstance than anything else, he supposed - and one traitor. Expose traitor's true loyalties. Stir the batch vigorously and see what comes out.
It was as perfect a delaying action as he could have imagined, especially considering that while the harmonics of the newly minted castle's, ah, special addition, had managed to disturb the Garderobe authorized Robes, those with individual Meister ones were unaffected.
True, the presence of Chrysant meant that the Topaz of the Jewel Isle was somewhere out in the middle of this mess - not something that had been expected, but neither was it a fact that could skew the odds _enough_ for the assault to be repelled. Especially not with the presence of their latest toys turning most of the city center into popsickles.
But Yumemiya was here, _now_ ... and it was an eventuality that had been planned for, even with the presence of such extras as Wong or Aries' President.
And the Ho girl had never seemed anything _but_ an obedient sleeper for Schwarz. It was, almost literally, in her blood. Understandably, her saying 'no' to his face when he told her to act was a bit of a shock ...
... and the more down to earth part of his mind was ringing all sorts of alarm bells because it had just realized he'd have to somehow deal with Yumemiya in her newly donned Meister Robe on his own.
And then, accompanied by a sudden feeling of vertigo, all his worries suddenly became irrelevant.
The last thing he heard as his unresponsive body keeled over and out of the seat of the Flea sout hover was the distant *crack*.
He had enough of his facilities left to recognize the sound as that of a rifle roud being fired a fair ways off before everything went black.
Are going to tell me you _didn't_ want Smith shot?
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm