Lutwidge Manor

If this was an attempt at getting her to let her guard down, it was working. Whoever this boy was he was incredibly underwhelming, to put it nicely. To put it bluntly, he was kind of a dork. But his words bore considering; she didn't know what he knew, but it was clear he'd made found something out about her. Whether his offer to help her was genuine or otherwise would remain to be seen, but she would agree to meeting him - at least, meeting him in kind - at least until she could ascertain how much about her he knew. It would be dangerous if he had knowledge of something incriminating, or even worse, her identity. She'd play by ear with this one.

She'd let Aida make the opening move.

The mannequin instinctively understood her intent, and walked quickly back upstairs to her room. For Techster, he would be left in silence for a couple of minutes, with only Cheshire as his (unknowing) companion. Finally, the door opened.

Aida had donned a face - literally - to meet with young man, it was a face called "Camilla" - a fake maid with a real birth certificate that Charlotte had commissioned. Plenty of her faces had their own, verifiable identities. It made it easier for the mannequin to move about in broad daylight, when needed.

Still dressed in her maid outfit, she greeted him with a quick bow and said, "We will talk here, if you don't mind." Although she sounded polite it was apparent that it didn't really matter much if he minded or not; they were going to talk outside, and he was not stepping in.

"I'd rather not disturb the mistress, you see. She requires rest, and a matter such as this requires . . . discretion," she spoke. implying as though Charlotte were unaware of their meeting. "Now, who are you, and what is it you want?" Her voice was even and eerily devoid of emotion. Aida had a phenomenally good poker face, which was a given as she did not truly have one. More than once she found it gave her an advantage during negotiations, when no one could discern her true intentions.

Lutwidge Manor

Aida and Charlotte both processed his words. If what he said was true, then that would accelerate her plans by months, years even. With Charlotte's legal problems completely done with, they could divert their focus towards information gathering and expanding the range of her operations. Even more, the amount of money, while admittedly small in comparison to the total amount of assets she possessed, was not inconsequential - if she were free to use that money elsewhere, she could begin supplying herself with better equipment, and even get around to overhauling the manor into a more secure headquarters, or further down the line, begin funding other heroes as well!

Charlotte shook her head. No, she shouldn't get ahead of herself just yet. It was a fanciful thought, but it would be better to keep her expectations low. For now, they needed to verify if what he was saying was true.

"I . . . see," said Aida, with a nod of her head. "This is certainly incredible news. You will forgive me if I have a hard time believing it and your good intentions. If you do not mind, I would like to verify the documents before dealing with you any further."

The maid entered the house for a second, before coming out with a wooden fold-able chair. "It would be discourteous to have you stand the whole time, please sit here for the moment." And with that, Aida disappeared back into the manor.

Once inside, she handed the device to Charlotte, who quickly got to work picking it apart. Just a few seconds in and it was already apparent that he was not lying. The information contained with in could decisively end her legal problems, and moreover, with the documentation he provided, she now had an idea of how to cover her tracks.

Despite the help he provided, it was still a bad sign that he was able to discover as much about her as he'd had, even if what he'd discovered was not quite damning. Still, this was dangerous information about her. She'd rather remain as anonymous as possible, for the time being.

Charlotte nodded at Aida, and the maid proceeded straight for the kitchen. It seemed as though she would be meeting with Techster after all, and see what he wanted out of this.

It took a quarter of an hour before the maid returned. Hopefully the boy wasn't feeling too impatient with them.

"Thank you for waiting. After careful deliberation, m'lady has decided to meet with you," she opened the door for him, inviting him inside with a gesture. "If you would please."

Once inside, the maid led them through the enormous mansion. It was dimly lit - not much point in keeping the lights on when the one person who needed them usually stayed in her room all day - even if it was well maintained and clean. In silence, Aida walked until they came upon the large wooden double doors that led to what was once Charlotte's mothers' library.

The room itself was large, taking up an area of about 20 feet and two floors high, but as for actual living space, there was almost none to speak of. Nearly every inch of the place was covered in books, or manuscripts. There were also display cases of various gemstones and diagrams of machines and clothes of all kinds. Needless to say, the room exuded an aura of quiet knowledge.

Charlotte was seated across a wooden desk, playing idly with a chocolate-chip cookie in hand. It was hand made by Aida, though it wasn't quite fresh off the oven. She found it was still serviceable as a snack though. She made great cookies after all - although now she was wondering when she even had the time to learn how to bake; it was strange, despite their mental connection, the maid was still somehow found a way to surprise her.

In any case, she put finished off the cookie in one bite, and then, her face was strictly business.

When she spoke, her voice was the high-pitch expected of a child her age, yet it held none of the wavering uncertainty, or the ever-present garble as words threatened to trip upon another. Her tone was soft, but carried itself with surprising clarity across the room, serious and direct. It was a face Aida found she put far too often these days.

"Good evening. Though you're already aware of who I am, let me introduce myself for the sake of formalities."

"I'm Charlotte Carolle Lutwidge, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

Lutwidge Manor - Library

Charlotte stared at the older boy in silence for a moment, before nodding. "You can start by taking a seat, Howard, or do you prefer Howie?" she offered politely. "Also, thank you. The library was my mother's and she went through painstaking effort to developing it." She was genuinely surprised by his reaction towards it, and also somewhat grateful. Asides her fathers statue collection, her mother's library was prioritised during her efforts to claim her inheritance. There were books in here that were rarities among rarities, and their literary value aside, some individually could probably be sold for numbers at no less than a six-digit range. There were at least two that went into the seven-digit range and were probably some sort of national treasure somewhere.

The girl slid a tray filled with cookies towards his end of the table, offering it to him wordlessly.

"First of all," she began, after allowing Techster a moment to get comfortable, "I would like to know: What do you want from me? For all intents and purposes, I am just a girl tied up in an admittedly bitter legal battle for her inheritance.

"Your own personal suspicions aside, there is little you could get out of coming to me like this, unless you're considering blackmail, which I will inform you beforehand, will turn out very, very poorly for you."

As if to emphasise her point, the Aida who had been last seen closing the door, had soundlessly positioned herself behind him, and only now made her presence known. Her hands were hidden behind her back, though they were no doubt already holding on to something to make good on Charlotte's words.

"So why me? If it's funding you want, you could get it easier from other sources, without having to go through the trouble of digging them out of a rough spot in court."

She was honestly curious. Why her, of all people? She couldn't think of anything that would have procured this sort of reaction from anyone, least of all an apparent hero like him.

Lutwidge Manor - Library

Charlotte slowly digested the fact that Techster had come all this way 'just because' - and you would forgive her if she found that it was a difficult claim to stomach. For the past two years now she'd dealt with a myriad of people, all using different approaches to get to her and her inheritance, and many of them attempted to earn her good graces through seemingly benevolent acts of kindness towards her. After the first time one had nearly managed to get away with it, she promptly put her guard up against similar tricks - all of them were dealt with in quick succession.

She sighed. Perhaps she was being a bit too cynical about him - young though she might be, she'd like to think that at this point she wasn't so terrible a judge of character that she'd figured out Techster wrongly. For all that her experience told her that this was a trap, her instincts all pointed to the boy being a good person, or at least, a good person to her for the moment.

"Okay, I will accept your claims as genuine, for the moment. It's far from trust, but you'll forgive me for being cautious," she stated, shaking her head. No point looking a gift horse in the mouth. "It's a bit late, but thank you for your help. I'm sure your already aware, but what you've done for me is not a small thing. Consider me in your debt."

Dangerous words, for sure, but at this point there was really no helping it. His help was appreciated, and moreover, needed to be repaid somehow. She didn't like being in debt, after all. It was generally bad for business, and as a personal rule, it was an infringement on her honor.

"Another question, if I may," she asked. It was as good a time as any after all. "Just how much do you know about me?" Of course, he could lie about this, but given what he knew already, knowing a little more wasn't that big a threat to her. Truthfully, details about her powers would benefit little. The most dangerous piece of information was something he was already aware of or at least suspected - that she, while wearing White Knight, was 'Looking Glass'.

Besides - and this is something she wouldn't admit it out loud - a part of her was relieved, and extremely ecstatic, with Techsters presence. Though she hadn't ever heard his name on the news, and though he was hardly the image she would conjure upon thinking of the word 'hero', the fact remained that he identified himself as one, and so far, has conducted himself accordingly. Childhood memories, no matter how tainted they were, had a habit of rearing up on her, despite her attempts to restrain them. None of those feelings made it to her face, and her expression didn't change at all.