If nothing else, at least the food was delicious. Pork, veal and venison, braised in a fancy sauce. According to what the king's servant said, the food had been stewed for half a day before it had been presented to the guests. No wonder the pieces melted in Uchu's mouth. Even so, the Villca heir was in a lousy mood.

Their entire plan had been so clever, so simple. He would come announce his claim to the throne as a member of the Villca clan. Once the king would acknowledge his invitation, he would be acknowledged as a proper noble by the only authority in the south who could do so. At that point, he would be in the running for his father's lands, and so all he had to do was leave as soon as possible. However, no matter how much he wanted to, his newest advisor had different ideas.

“I still don't get why I couldn't have just run,” Uchu moaned towards the rat. Although his little brother had only entered Uchu's camp two days ago, the two of them had planned today's actions a long time ago. However, they hadn't expected the king's indifference. In response to his big brother's complaint, the rat, Guachimine Villca, presented his overbite as his upper lip drew back in a show of disgust.

“For the millionth time, we cannot ignore the rules of nobility, brother. Even if you were the strongest man in the south-”

“-and I am,” Uchu smirked and threw another cube of soft meat into his mouth.

“-Cashan won't stand for long if we antagonize all other lords.” Guachimine covered his eyes with his hand.

“But I thought I was supposed to piss off the lords? Wasn't that the plan?” In all truth, Uchu had been annoyed by the little rat's machinations for a good while already. Now that he couldn't even understand the plan anymore, his discontent had only built up more.

“Offending the king would be fine, offending the governor would be even better,” the rat snickered. “But breaking the rules of nobility cannot and will not be accepted. By anyone. Just imagine, what will the lords of the east think when we break any rules we see fit. Once you take Cashan, we want to control them. How will we achieve our goals if they are weary of our willful ignorance of common custom?”

“So we're stuck here now,” Uchu concluded. With a scowl and a swerve, he picked up the fancy glass on his table to have another taste of the equally fancy drink within. Meanwhile, Guachimine had begun to bite his fingernails again, so the older brother chose to look away.

“The plan was not meant to go this way,” the younger brother's voice trembled. “We sent the king a head as a present. A damned head! How can he just take this sort of insult and let us stay? Damn bastard. If the king had only thrown us out, we could have just left and gone home. Even if he had rejected the present, we could have at least made it our alive. Sure we would offend the western lords, but we don't need to care about them anyways. This way, we don't leave ourselves vulnerable, and we can even get some extra favor from the eastern estates for standing up to this so-called King of the South and his loyal dogs.”

“'Not vulnerable'? Was that the goal? I didn't notice. Great plan you had there, brother. Really well done.”

With a nervous hum, the rat stared out into the hall, to the other side of the room, where their brother Epunamo sat, constant watch kept on their table. Even after the failed duel, Uchu's competitor wouldn't let up at all.

Like a mangy dog, Uchu thought.

“You didn't need to accept the duel, brother.” This time, it was the rat who broke the silence. Despite how he appeared, Guachimine had proven to be a brave man, eager to speak his mind.

“So what should I have done then? Run away and be seen as a coward?”

“At least you could have determined the rules of the battle before and not just accepted brother Epu's demands. The way you handled it, at least no one thought you were a coward. They just thought you were an idiot,” the rat shot back.

In response, Uchu only had a scoff to offer.

“How could I know that my little brother would bring out those weird weapons? Weren't all you nobles so big on rules and honor? Who would expect anything but a proper fight? You think Epunamo could beat me in one of those, ever? Just look at the scrawny bastard.”

“No matter what you say, your actions were foolish, brother. Epunamo Villca is no idiot, I told you as much before we came here. In fact, among all of us he is the most well-learned. He also thinks much of his own cleverness, so he would never move without a plan. No matter how angry he seemed, it was obvious that he would present a ploy to destroy us as soon as he offered the duel. I told that as well.”

For a while, silence fell over the room, only interspersed with occasional sips whenever Uchu took another chance at his brandy. While the strong liquor soothed his heart as much as it did his pride, he thought back to the massive boom and the giant ball of steel lodged in the wall. No matter how much this king talked about a misfire, Uchu knew that he had almost been taken out by his brother's plot. Although it wasn't the first time he had been confronted by his own mortality, this really wasn't a good way to start his fight for his father's lands. His impatience drawn to the limit, Uchu was the first to break again.

“So when can we leave then? The sooner we go the better. I'd rather not see a castle wall fall on my head because of an unfortunate mistake from the king's stonemason.”

“It is proper for you to worry, brother. We should be worried, truly. However, now that the king has accepted our gift, we will have to spend some more time here. We cannot leave until the king has come to our table for his return visit.”

“So it'll just be another eternity then. Fantastic.”

With clenched jaws, Uchu stared over to King Corco, who took great care with each and every one of his guests. Every time he stepped up to a new table, the King of the South would spend as much time with his guests as they would allow. They would exchange drinks and toasts, tell stories and sing songs together. Of course the king would be eager to expand his influence within the south, but to an already tense Uchu, it looked like the bastard was stalling to torture him, nothing more.

“These are the rules, and we have to follow them like everyone else. If you become known as a rule breaker, no one in the east will listen to a word you say, no matter how much strength you think you have. The old lords are stubborn, they can only handle so much excitement at once. Also,” Guachimine shot a frown at Uchu's hand, and the glass he still grasped within it, “if you are worried about more assassinations, maybe it is time to abstain from the king's drinks, poured by the king's servants. The swill will only muddy your mind, and we can never know what manner of ingredient the king's servants have added to your glass.”

Rather than agreement, another scoff shot back at Guachimine, despite his best intentions.

“Nonsense. If there's one thing that's not gonna happen, it's poison in the drinks. That's bad business, and bad business is something the servants will avoid like the plague. Just look at that king of theirs, and the way he acts.”

Dismissive, Uchu jerked his head over to the man who was still taking his sweet time as he catered to every lord under the stars. At this point, the king spoke in an animated manner, while he presented a strange metal box to the lords, his face filled with pride as he spoke. Although Uchu couldn't hear Corco's words, the king's intentions weren't hidden from the bandit.

“I have seen people like this before. That's just the way the merchants would act in the local markets, when they sell their cheap wares to gullible fools. No man like that would poison his own product and lower its value.”

At first Guachimine only blinked back at Uchu's words. The revelation must have surprised the little rat. Of course it would. Uchu was sure that as a lord's son, the rat had never even seen a merchant from up close, let alone talked with any of them. Even so, his little brother's face scrunched up into a frown when he turned just in time to see the king press a glass bottle with another one of Saniya's products into the hands of a lord, one unwilling to accept the king's good graces no less.

“No matter what happens, brother: Do not speak this out loud. Not until we have left Saniya. This knowledge is a weapon we can use, but not now. For the moment, we will need to lower our heads and weather the storm. I am not only worried about Epu either. If what our brother said about father's death is true, that king is just as dangerous as Epunamo.”

As Uchu kept watch on the new king, his eyes narrowed into slits. Although Epunamo had tried to kill him, it was still something he could accept. As a bandit himself, he wasn't really opposed to underhanded methods either, so he didn't mind how his brother had broken with all the honor crap. Of course, that didn't mean that he wouldn't hold it against the coddled brat.

However, the king's sins were of an entirely different kind. If King Corco was behind his father's death, a chance to kill him would be more than enough reason to cooperate even with the devil. All this time, Uchu had hoped that he would be the one to give the final blow to his vile and foppish father. No one was allowed to take that honor from him.

“So how long then? That king sure is taking his sweet time.” Even though Uchu asked for the third time, his brother still answered the same.

“No matter how long, we will have to stay. Even if we are the last table visited, our salvation is near, so to say. There are only three tables left besides ours. Where else could the king go at that point?”

Just as Guachimine gave his brother some hope, Corco was ready to smash it out of his hands. While the king was once again busy with his metal toy, a woman stepped up behind him and whispered into his ear. With a nod of acknowledgment, the king excused himself from the party and freed them of his incessant sales pitch. Then he turned, and left the venue without another word.

“Damn it all!” Thrown away with all the force of an angry cultivator, the precious glass splintered in the corner, to accentuate the king's exit. However, despite his loud actions, not one of the southern lords so much as glanced at the pariah. Only Epunamo still had his eyes trained on him, unblinking and with a permanent scowl stuck on his darkened face. For a while there was silence in their little corner once more, as Uchu steadied his mood and the rat made himself invisible.

“This can't go on. We have to do something,” a brooding Uchu said at last.

“Do something? What can we do, brother?” Guachimine had begun to gnaw on his claws again.

“Give me a piece of paper and one of those quills that king has been handing out. It's time to make some arrangements for later.”

“Brother, I understand if you do not wish to tell me your plans, however...” Always the noble, the rat played politician once again. However, Uchu had no interest in games right now. Keeping too many secrets from his little brother would be bad for his health anyways.

“I'll have you send this over to Epunamo once I'm done,” Uchu said, while he scribbled his peace offering onto the paper. “It's time to have a little family talk."