—Three days ago.—

As if a blacksmith was using it in place of an anvil, Caeso’s head throbbed.

"Repeat that,"

“One of the people you told me to look out for came over earlier and was given an immediate pass to enter the Command,” the woman said, swallowing her nervousness.

Caeso's investigation had yielded a few possible lines of communication between Septimus's family and the town's commander, and he had made sure that all of the suspects were known to his people.

“I pay you to get information on time,” he said as he started pacing around the soldier, one hand on his belt the other massaging his temple. “Not an hour later,”

“Sir, the man was given entrance immediately. There was no time for me to send a word,” she said, her back straight and head looking straight ahead, but he heard the weakness in her voice. These provincial soldiers always lacked backbones when matters of the Capital were involved, Caeso knew. She held the same military rank as he and yet she treated him as if the Sun itself rose from between his butt cheeks.

"Immediately?" he asked. "What did he do inside? Whom did he meet?" With narrowed eyes, he waited for her to speak. It took her a moment too long for his comfort. "Speak," he commanded in that voice that soldiers everywhere answered to.

She nodded. "From what I managed to learn, he met with Marcus Lorius, a Peacekeeper clerk on duty. After he left I learned from the same clerk that the man came to ask for a peacekeeper with a truth-telling skill and a recordkeeper for an unspecified visit. He paid half of the cost upfront for a speedy visit,"

“When was it scheduled for?”

"In four days, Sir,"

“Anything else?”

“That’s everything, Sir,”

From the top drawer he pulled out a small leather pouch and tossed it to the woman. The coins jiggled as she counted them, until a moment later she nodded and left, closing the door behind her.

Caeso's gaze turned to the window as he rubbed his chin. If he was right about the connection… and the possibility was high, especially since the man was able to enter immediately… a Peacekeeper with a truth-telling skill… a recordkeeper… Caeso closed his eyes as his headache redoubled.

There was only one thing that the old Expert might do with those two.

Ciron was about to announce his skill to the Capital, with no doubts about it.

For whatever reason, the old Expert had not made his status public beforehand and that was part of what had made him so valuable to his Lord Father. Once his Lord Father explained that to him, Caeso had gone to great lengths and spent a lot of money to make sure no word got out.

Now the old man planned to fuck him!

Caeso knew that the forces of his Lord Father had made some headway into the northern grasslands of Zagea and new forts and towns were desperately needed to hold down the land against the native tribes and the wilderness.

There was always a major shortage of people with the ability to make a dwelling that would last more than a single storm season of Zagea, and he knew that much of the Empire's workforce was already shipped off to do just that. Even the mages with the ability to influence stone and earth were no exception, but no Empire-educated mage could come close to the efficiency and quality of work of a specialized high-level skill.

And besides his skill, Ciron was a master mason.

Based on what Caeso learned of the old man's work, some of it up close and personal, creating buildings and forts would solely depend on the speed of stone being shipped. Creating those forts faster and at little cost would mean more money and land for his Lord Father. While Caeso might never get recognized as an il'Drusus, if he proved useful enough, he might get a proper surname of his own choosing, some land close to the Capital, and a young wife of his own…

It was time to think of that, after all. He was twenty-five and not getting any younger…

But if the word got out, especially in such a formal way, then someone from the Imperial Family would have the first pick of the man regardless of anything Caeso or his Lord Father did. The safety of Ciron’s family would be guaranteed by the word of the Emperor for as long as Ciron worked directly for the Imperial Family.

That was probably what the man was after, damn him!

The matter of the faked death of Nox Septimus il’Drusus was a card that his Lord Father probably planned to use as blackmail the mother of Lux and Nox il’Drusus, a formidable outsider that ruled in her infirmed husband's stead, and it would probably fail before it even began. Caeso shook his head as pity welled up in him. The old Lord Augustus Severus il’Drusus had seven legitimate sons and yet not a single proper heir to take over for him. Caeso knew that if the matter of Nox was not handled with care and if it became a matter of public knowledge… not only would his Lord Father not profit, the il’Drusus Family Name might become the talk of certain circles…

Caeso’s overlong stay in Nurium, far past what he planned initially, already meant that some nobles of Nurium had started verifying the tales that he had spun, and more holes were leaking with every passing day. But he could keep those Nobles in check, even if they found out the truth. But this attempt?

Caeso had to end this before a single skill-confirmed truth was written on an official page.

Within ten minutes he had bones of a plan, so he stood from his chair and strode out of his room in search of his men. He found them a minute later, cooling by the mansion's pool.

“Listen up!” he barked and five heads turned his way. “Change of plans. No harassment missions from today onwards. Felios! You’re chummy with that truth skill fellow? Is he the only one with the skill in Nurium?”

“Sir, there are three more but two of those are on tax collecting duty for the local farms and villages while the third is the Head of Peacekeepers himself,”

Caeso nodded. That was… excellent. Working in a small town had some benefits. "I need him occupied for a while. Do anything necessary, spend as much money as you need, everything except killing him. Even a day away from his duty will do…"

After he finished with individual orders, he thought a small boost in morale might do. “We do this right and we will be out of Nurium and headed for the Capital in less than a week…” Caeso said with a smile and his men exploded with glee.

After he retired to his unofficial office, Caeso had to wonder. Why did Lux and his Family hide Nox in Nurium anyway? Why did they let everyone else think him dead?

There were a lot of old mysteries here, Caeso knew, but some of them were quite fresh.

A recently returned son of Septimus, still a child by all accounts, that seemed to be able to appear and vanish at random. The spy that Caeso hired near their family home said that he had seen the boy do some strange things…

Strange women that were spotted coming to and leaving the house, yet somehow eluded the tracking from the best of his men with no trails left…

Then there was the strange appearance of the old Expert… who didn’t look so old anymore… Caeso had seen that happen before, but only to Higher Nobles like his Lord Father…

A lot of things could go wrong. People could get seriously injured, maimed, or even killed, and Caeso could only pray that the Stormfather forbid any of those things from happening. If Lux Primus found out that it was by Caeso’s hand that any of those things happened, he wasn’t sure that even his Lord Father could save his hide…

Hells, his Lord Father might be the one who earns the ire of the notorious stealth killer…

All of these uncertainties made him even more hesitant to engage in a frontal assault.

But Caeso’s latest orders were clear and with this move he was pushed against the wall, so now he had to carefully plan for a forceful extraction of multiple hostile and semi-hostile individuals, an extraction where he had to make sure no one got killed accidentally.

His reinforcements should arrive in the next few days, and if not then that would mean accepting some offers from the local Nobles…