In the past, Natsumi had always conducted her affairs with the utmost secrecy. She would always stray far away from the public eye whenever visiting the centers of population, never revealing her mutations too openly. That practice, however, became more difficult with the addition of her wings, and had actually obsolesced once she took up an official position to overturn her former, questionable activities. She no longer needed to hide, and her boldness with Rhodes demonstrated that. It was, therefore, not a mistake brought on by naiveté or even a mistake at all. Rather, her brazen confidence was due, entirely, to, at long last, having the official authority to conduct an investigation without having to hide it.
The pirate's tempestuous interference was, as a result, not appreciated. Natsumi had seen her approach, smelled her as she was speaking to her target, but had ignored the eavesdropping until being threatened. The sight of the woman's crossbow being paired with her words after that transition definitely got the Ice Queen's attention, but not in the way the interloper might have hoped.
"Kidnapping," the University Seeker asked Carliah without even the slightest flinch? "On the contrary, I have been given legal dispensation to chat with Mr. Rhodes here who already has a warrant out for his arrest. I'm supposed to drop him off at the nearest guard outpost once our business is concluded, but preferably after he returns what he stole from the University of Wyllmochvar. You know? The organization whose seal I'm wearing and that plays a major role in politics for the city you're standing in?"
Rhodes, who had been largely silent other than a few grunts up till this point, took the opportunity to finally speak up once knowledge of Natsumi's intentions was out in the open. He feigned a sleazy smile, and exchanged glances between the two women in front of him, all while trying to weasel his way out of the current predicament.
"Come now. Me: a thief? I'm just an honest archaeologist who was going to hire this here lady to retrieve some artifacts for me."
Such words would have been a clever out under normal circumstances, as they were meant to turn the confrontation into a, "he said, she said," situation. In the absence of proof, it was only Natsumi's word against a seemingly, honorable businessman. Unfortunately for the "archaeologist," though, there was proof, and Natsumi summoned it to her hand for the sheer pleasure of watching her suspect's smug expression crumble into a thousand pieces.
"Right," she said while holding that piece of parchment to his nose, "and I suppose this letter from a convicted death row criminal talking about the ship I mentioned as well as your involvement – a letter that has been verified and documented by law enforcement, I might add – is just coincidence?" As expected, Rhodes' facade peeled off rather quickly as he realized he had been caught red-handed, and his confident aura from before turned to meekness.
"How did you get that," he asked? Natsumi could only respond with a self-assured smirk before explaining exactly how things would proceed.
"The late Roderick was never the type to go down alone. Even if he told you he would burn the evidence, he kept all of it. Anyone who sold him out was selling everyone else out, including themselves. That's just the kind of man he was, and he knew that the best way to keep a criminal organization in line is to make the stakeholders monitor each other." Tightening the straight-jacket for a moment, the druid continued."So I suggest you start talking, while pretending to hire both of us for your 'perfectly legitimate' salvage operation; unless, of course, you don't want that reduced sentence I told you about. The deal from the guard is that you either come clean, or they won't let you bargain anything." A small twist was all that was necessary for this message to be heard loud and clear, at which point Mr. Rhodes was finally willing to speak plainly.
"Fine," he shouted! "I'll pay you both. Just stop trying to break my arm!" Thus, the spell was released, and the suspect was allowed to stand. Natsumi was still keeping a close eye on Carliah during this whole engagement – or, rather, Kino was – and she was prepared to take the job and run if that woman proved to be too much of a nuisance.
For all her bluster, Carliah was one who didn't know the downfalls of threatening an unknown mage while they still had magic at their disposal. Natsumi would probably be wounded by the crossbow bolt if it was fired, but that didn't mean its wielder would get out unscathed. There were many ways for the Ice Queen to permanently end the Drago job without getting caught in that moment; and some of them even involved framing the interloper for murder. If this female pirate wanted a payday, her best choice was to play along.