Unknown Location...

The Master's Den

Lillian woke up in a groggy manner and was quite surprised to find herself sitting on a bed. A quick look at her surroundings and she finally took in that she was back with her benefactor and said benefactor was not happy.

The Master stood a few distances away from the bed and glared at her in annoyance.

Lillian gulped, she knew she should not have gone after Hal. Not yet at least. Not when it seemed the Master was becoming more interested in him.

But that was what had scared her. The thought that she could end up having to cohabit with her son's killer was worrying.

"I told you to wait" The tone was quiet and there was seemingly no edge to it and yet the pressure bore down on Lillian.

Not enough to suffocate her of course, but just enough to make her fearful.

That said, Lillian remained confident,

"You said I could go after him after the competition" she said reminding him of the conversation they once had.

The Master sighed,

"Even so, you could have waited for me to give you the all-clear. I just received news from San that Hal Payne is already a capable Rune Master, well past the Second Rank.

San's interest in the news had paled due to the death of the Plebeian forces who went into the forest but it was the information that finally made everything clear to me."

At this revelation, Lillian's eyes widened. While she knew Hal was a Runemaster and must be quite capable as Master Swanson's apprentice, she never would have guessed he could have ranked up so far, so fast.

Since when was it that easy?

The Master continued,

"I was going to relay that information to you and how convinced I am that Hal was primarily involved in the death of the Holgers when I realized you were gone already"

This time Lillian lowered her head, she could understand that she had truly been reckless. To make things even worse, Hal had not made use of Runemastering at all and she had still been forced to use a fourth-grade skill which was just as detrimental to her as to her opponent.

Not to mention that there was also that look on Hal's face as he saw her begin to use the skill that clearly felt dangerous. There was pity in his eyes and that had only made Lillian even angrier.

But now that it was over and she could think back to it,

Why had his strikes felt good?

And why was it that she seemed to crave even more if that touch?

She quickly shook her head, surely she must be going insane.

"I'm sorry" she said with a bow.

The Master snorted,

"I have no use for your apologies, instead show it in your actions. Disobey me and act on your own without my permission again and I will kill you myself"

The Crimson eyes which were the only part Lillian could make out of the Master's features flashed and she jumped in fear.

Maybe, she really had overstepped.

The Master then sighed,

"I have to say, it was quite an interesting revelation. It would seem your Stepson is not a small fly after all. In fact, he seems more dangerous than your husband"

Lillian perked up,

"What? Because he's a capable Runemaster, *snort* I doubt it" She said.

It could be interpreted as the lingering emotions she felt towards Gregory or it could be interpreted as her having more information about him, whatever it was, the Master just laughed and shook his head to disagree.

"Actually, your stepson is much more dangerous but worry not. As long as you are with me, you will have your revenge"

Lillian would have loved to smile at that moment but for some reason, her thoughts and emotions on the matter were quite jumbled up.

The Master watched as her thoughts wandered and the crimson eyes narrowed into slits as they could not help but wonder,

Had things changed for Lillian?

And if things had, then what had caused it?

...

Fidwud Family Home...

The Plebeian Families had converged for another meeting to discuss the events of the day and the steps moving forward.

The atmosphere was heavy as a lot of them did not consider the day's events as victory whole others were simply cranky that this meeting had not been shifted to the next day when they were all quite rested.

From the moment they had converged, San had been quiet and simply stared off into space. The fully recovered Evian stood behind him. Straight as an arrow.

There was probably no one else that was affected by the failure as much as San who had proposed the plans.

Seeing as it seemed San would simply ignore the gathered and wallow in his thoughts...

"Hem hem"

...Bale cleared his throat to draw the attention of the Fidwud Family head.

"Are we just going to sit here or do you have something to say?" he said with impatience.

He was part of the group that was cranky at being called to converge when it could have been scheduled for the next day.

At the sound of his voice, San visibly paused and looked up at Bale.

The two made eye contact but Bale refused to be intimidated and forced to back down.

San eventually sighed and said,

"I'm sorry, I was lost in thought..."

"We could see that" Tod said gruffly, taking courage in his friend's defiance.

San ignored the interruption and continued,

"Today, we won and we lost but I believe we have been dwelling too much on the loss. While it is true that we lost capable men, it is also true that we dealt the Great families even more loss than we got."

When sending Men after the Great family scions, while they had selected capable men, those men did not really amount to a good percentage of the true strength of their forces.

Losing them was definitely felt but dwelling upon it was far from healthy, especially since there was still much to plan.

"Everything until now has been merely to cripple the strength of the Great families, pending the complete outbreak of war. On that front, we succeeded and can at least rest easy that we will hold the initiative and launch the first strike of the war.

As we all know, the one who holds the initiative is more guaranteed to win. Until we do this, there is a small expedition we need to prepare for"

At this murmurs and whispers broke out as the plebeian heads wondered what it was and if this was not just another avenue in which they would lose more men.

The only ones not involved in the outbreaking conversations other than San were Baret and Ian who knew what San was about to say.

Seeing as the conversation was not dying out, San raised his hand in a bid for silence,

"What is this expedition?" Bale asked with his arms folded.

San smiled before it was replaced with a deep melancholy that was impossible to say whether true or false,

"We have discovered the identity of the one who killed our comrades, the Holgers"

San had expected Conversations to break out after he dropped this piece of news but instead it was a deathly silence that pervaded.

The silence was eventually broken by Tod who took a deep breath,

"Who was it?" He asked.

He did not bother to inquire if San was sure because while he did not particularly like San, in the present climate, such a question would be rude and interpreted as a lack of interest in bringing the culprit to justice.

There was time to question the legitimacy once the identity of the individual was revealed.

"Hal Payne" San said in a quiet voice that all could hear.

"What?!" Tod was not the only one who exclaimed. Almost every one of them was shocked by this revelation that they did not yet believe.

After all, the boy in question was still a teenager, surely, he couldn't possibly be involved in this 'Adult event'.

San waved his hand and Evian retreated from the Conference Hall. He returned soon after with the two apprentices of Runemasters Baret and Ian.

The two were soon told to tell of all they had witnessed which they did, including how Hal had surrounded the whole area in an Array and when it faded, the burning bodies of the Plebeian forces were all that was left.

From the tale, the Plebeian heads could understand how San had come to his conclusion on Hal being the culprit. Of course, Swanson must have been involved as well but once they went after his apprentice, they were bound to get him as well.

However, they were a little worried about attacking considering his obvious prowess which meant if they would confront him, they needed to do so with a lot of Cultivators at the Cosmic Armament realm.

Even more, than they had sent to the Confluence.

It was going to be a big expedition but if all went well, they could take care of Eugene Swanson as well because he was sure not to ally with the Plebeians and very likely to assist the Great families should he decide to not simply be passive.

San was satisfied to see that the tale was enough to get their cooperation. This would be his redemption through which he would regain the momentum he felt he had lost.

...

Meanwhile,

In the Mansion...

Hal and Amelia were still at it. Hal had taken to keeping her request in a part of his mind not to be revised until after he had thoroughly exhausted her stamina.

Amelia clung even tighter to him with her arms, legs and pussy walls as Hal suckled on her breasts and nibbled at her nipple lightly with his teeth as he pounded her into the sweet arms of orgasmic bliss.