Chiyome gave Prince Teal a small, polite smile. Ordinarily she would have adopted a deep bow-a sign of respect-but this was supposed to be a "business meeting". And so, Chiyome simply took her seat, with Nakami (her Scizor) standing on her right and Kotsu (her Marowak) standing on her left; the two had been trained to do so, as a defensive precaution. 

"I was hoping our mutual associate had gotten the message to you.  You look familiar.  Were you by any chance with the caravan that went with my Aunt to Lavender a year ago?"

Chiyome smiled again and nodded, before speaking with a bit more confidence. [color=00FFFF]"Yes, I was. Nakami and I were with the caravan for...propriety's sake,"[/color] she answered, gesturing to her Scizor. The Prince's aunt had requested only female guards and Pokemon, after all. [color=00FFFF]"I also accompanied your sister to a business meeting to celebrate a special occasion."[/color] Princess Scarlett's birthday party...she remembered spending most of the time entertaining young children of nobility with little spins and flips of her naginata. Chiyome was surprised that the Prince recognized her; he spent so much time meeting people, after all. It at least made the introductions a little bit easier, though.

At that thought, another man approached the table. Chiyome noted the two Ninetales he had with him, and hoped Nakami didn't feel too anxious about the fire-typed one. That's what Kotsu was for, anyway. Chiyome couldn't help but size him up out of habit; if anything, he didn't seem to be from...well, anywhere. He had a mask on that reminded her of the Ninetales he was accompanied by. His feet were bare, which implied he might either be very poor or very uncivilized. And the way he spoke to Pokemon...he seemed quite comfortable with them. The Prince's acknowledgement of him as a Pokemon "expert" cemented that fact in Chiyome's mind; she was here to guard the Prince, but what was [i]he[/i] here for? [color=00FFFF]"Hello there. It's very nice to meet you,"[/color] Chiyome said, trying to sound formal yet friendly. He seemed to be decent enough, if a bit eccentric. The King chose him for a reason, surely it was a good reason. They couldn't afford to take many risks here.

"Would either of you, or your pokemon, like something to eat or drink?"

Chiyome thought for a second; she was always particularly fond of Oran Berry tea. Kotsu preferred Chesto Berries for food, while Nakami was also fond of Oran Berries. [color=00FFFF]"Oran Berry tea for me would be lovely. Could my Pokemon get Oran and Chesto berries?"[/color] Chiyome always found the Prince's nearly-human servant to be somewhat unsettling. Unless you knew, you could never tell that she was actually a Ditto. She had to wonder, where did the Ditto get its human form from? Was it a real person, or was it simply based off the Prince's specifications? Perhaps the Ditto had preferences? Even more surprising was its skill with a sword. Chiyome had never sparred with Peach, but she'd heard that she could be quite fearsome. When Peach returned, Chiyome thanked her and set the two plates in front of her Pokemon, before taking a sip of her tea. The taste was as pleasant as always, she found, though she missed the tea from the palace just a bit. But homesickness was not her priority; it was time to talk business.

As Chiyome listened to the Prince's words, she realized he was giving them options rather than orders. That was...unexpected. On the one hand, she was worried that they'd come so close to enemy territory without a concrete plan of action. After all, the enemy could be heading their way [i]at that very moment[/i] and they'd have no way of knowing. But on the other hand, Chiyome found some relief in actually choosing for once. Sure, she was allowed to order around some lower-ranked guards at the palace, but she was still relatively new. And the Prince's "opportunities" were good. The merchant speech was a bit dense, but she knew it was a necessity. Chiyome weighed their two possible moves in her head; those three "investors" he spoke of...did he mean Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres? The three Legendary Lords almost never interfered in human affairs. Chiyome was certain that they'd lived through many wars before, what was this one to them now? And yet, the Apriballs she'd heard so much about...those might change their minds. But like he said, they would need to actually acquire some Apriballs to prove their point. New military technology is not so easily obtained. They would either need to somehow sneak into enemy territory and steal some, or actually get involved in a skirmish of some sort and take them off a fallen Johtoan. Both of those were risky.

Then there was his other proposal: sabotaging them. Chiyome knew how important food supply was to a traveling group of soldiers, much less an entire army's worth. If they could somehow sabotage their food supply, the Kanto army could possibly starve them out. It might not even have to be food at all; if they could halt the influx of weapons, armor, money even, it would give them a serious chance. But then, that was much easier said than done, and came with the same risks as stealing the Apriballs. They were a tiny group of three, and one of them was "precious cargo", to put it into merchants' terms. They [i]could[/i] sabotage an incoming caravan of food without much fuss, but anything more than a few guards would give them trouble. That would also require actual knowledge of travel routes, locations, supply value, and travel schedule. That might mean scouting would have to take place, which is difficult enough even without an ongoing war.

And yet...

The second option at least didn't leave things up to chance. Even with the Apriballs as proof, there was no way to know for sure if the Legendary Lords would actually help them. And all the time it would take to get the Apriballs, [i]and[/i] travel to meet the three Lords would be costly. Every day was just another day for Johto to plan its next strike; could they truly afford to spend so much time on chance? Chiyome [i]did[/i] think that getting their hands on a few Apriballs was a good idea; maybe they could somehow reverse engineer the technology, or at least create more of an understanding of how they worked. But the Legendary Lords seemed more like a last resort option to her. Sabotaging their army seemed much more feasible to her, and less likely to require tackling big groups of enemy soldiers. Taking down supply caravans, eliminating enemy messengers and falsifying documents, perhaps conducting small hit-and-run operations to give the main army force an opening...all concrete options. And like the Prince said, their food supply was critical. That could be their first target. If she had a few days, she might be able to take Sora and fly out beyond the front lines. Or, this fellow they had with them seemed like the kind of person who could be good at stealthier operations. He could certainly do the same thing.

[color=00FFFF]"Well, sir, I agree with the sentiment that profiting off the food supply lines would be greatly beneficial to us. I know from experience how critical those supply lines are to traveling groups, especially with hungry Pokemon to feed. Taking those supply lines might...[i]wear them out[/i] enough to give into our more persistent offers."[/color] Speaking in code like this was a bit difficult, but Chiyome did her best. [color=00FFFF]"I also agree that we need to get our hands on those Apriballs. We don't quite understand how they work, but I'm sure we could figure it out if we were to acquire a few. However, those investors...I'm unsure that we should rely on them at this moment in time. Investment proposals can go either way, and we're on a bit of a time constraint. I feel that we should focus on the food supply first and go from there."[/color]

[@TheUnknowable] [@Regitnui]