As the official envoy of 3 chariots total of the Vaughan family departed from the Fog city, so did another inconspicuous chariot that traveled far closer to the ground underneath them.

“So…if whatever happened to you guys at Talonia was a straightforward thread that tied the past and future of a single kingdom to one big bad, then what you are about to see is a tangled mess of history and feuds across a stack of 40 independent ruling families.” Ver said with her voice hushed as Lera maintained a projection of envoy overhead in the center of the Chariot.

“You know…they can’t hear you, right?” Wu whispered.

“Then why are you whispering too?!”

“I don’t know!”

“Fine.” Lera sighed, creating a thin layer of Void Domain Drown around the interior of the chariot and cutting off all sound from the outside world. Now being surrounded in absolute silence, even Wu and Ver’s whispers sounded like yells at the top of their lungs.

“Ok. This is ridiculous. Thanks, babe.” Wu returned to normal before Ver adopted the strategy at last. With the important matter of speech volume out of the way, Ver then continued explaining the need-to-knows when it comes to the forty houses of the Ethereal Realm.

However, no matter how well Ver told the story of the realm, it was going to be far more effective for Wu and Lera to see those houses in action than to hear it from someone else. Like trying to remember all fifty states of the US back on Wu’s world, there was no way that he’s going to remember all forty houses.

The journey to the city of eternal light, the capital city of the realm, will take a handful of days, and it was a great time for the group to catch up with one another before planning their next steps.

Thanks to her ties with the High Human society and the Guild of Mercenaries, she will have access to intelligence that remains inaccessible to others. However, there was also information that could only be gathered by people out in the field and on the ground, and that’s what Wu and Lera will do. As for Ver, she had other ideas.

Stopping just around the woodlands located in the outskirts of the city, Ver then quickly set up a hidden safehouse that the three will rest in before Lera secured it with her Cast array and hid it out of sight from any potentially curious eyes. Leaving behind a shell of the Kraken, Ver can then teleport directly back to the safe house if need be, and Wu and Lera can enter through the usual way.

The roads and airspace heading into the capital were already packed with chariots and carts of vastly different colors. The color of choice for House of Vaughan is bright purple, and that just happened to be the color of the Kraken. That might have been one of the reasons that the seniors of the Vaughan family were against having Ver stay in the family, as a rampaging sea monster would not do well to upkeep the image of a house.

Or would it?

In Ver's opinion, one’s image only needed to be maintained if one lacked the necessary strength to do so. Such had been the case for the 38th ranked house of Vaughan. For all of these years, apart from a few shining stars that were few and far between, the House of Vaughan were hanging on for dear life to remain one of the forty houses.

Ver clenched her fists as she walked along the streets with chariots whizzing by beside and above her, and a pyramid structure towered in the distance.

The entire city of eternal light was built upon a mountain, with the apex being the conference halls. Then, each of the 40 houses has their residences assigned according to their ranking. The higher ranked someone is, the closer their house was to the apex of the mountain.

One day…she will take the House of Vaughan all the way to the top…Ver thought, making a sharp left turn before entering the run-down bar of the Guild of Mercenaries. With a show of her personal identity Cast with the Token's imprint, she was then let into the hidden bar at the back.

“Ah. What do we have here.” Seeing Ver’s entrance, a few figures within the dim lighting of the hidden bar emerged, and it was a few notable local mercenaries from within Ethereal Realm, “Care to take a few hit jobs with me, my lady?”

“The only hit jobs you will receive are ones to the face.” Ver smiled back, to which the rest of the bar laughed out at once. The bartender slid her a drink along the table's surface before he turned around and dealt with the rest of the customers.

Ver glanced down, and she saw a piece of paper that was attached to the bottom of her cup. That’s the signal of a job that was assigned directly to her. She scanned the room, and all the mercenaries seemed to have just been minding their own businesses after her snarky comeback.

Uncoiling the piece of paper further, she illuminated the front of her table with the Kraken’s tendril from the tip of her finger before examining its contents.

“A direct request to Ver Fulgen Vaughan, if she were to accept this mission. The House of Grega’s despicable desecration of Ethereal Realm traditions shall not go unpunished. Provide them with a taste of their own poison, and twenty thousand units will be rewarded.”

The House of Grega, the 35th ranked family that specialized in the use of poisons and potions in their training and battle, was essentially a gate-keeper for the lower houses. According to the traditions of the Ethereal Realm since its formation after years of war between the individual states, no conflict shall arise between the houses outside of the decade-ly ethereal tournament.

However, that only covered the conflicts in literal broad daylight. There were no shortage of secretive missions being carried out in the dark. The success of such exploits hence reveal a house’s major weakness, and the rest of the houses will ruthlessly exploit it in the very next tournament.

In terms of missions carried out in the dark, there were none more effective than the use of assassination techniques using poison, which the House of Grega specializes. In fact, that was how they got to Ver’s father.

To maintain a strong image for the House of Vaughan, what remained of the leadership announced a peaceful retirement and transition of power from Ver’s father to Stark Vaughan, though rumors had already begun spreading within the Fog City that the previous head of the house was instead assassinated.

Whoever created this job also knew of that fact, it could very well be a trap, as anyone caught attacking another house in broad daylight will directly lead to the house’s disqualification from the Ethereal Tournaments.

Ver crunched the paper into a ball before warping it away with a dash of her Whirlpool purple. Then, she grabbed the cup and downed the drink.

She cannot risk putting her house in danger. So she just needed to do the job cleanly. She did not care for her father, nor the image of the House of Vaughan. She also doesn't really see this as an act of revenge. Just like the hit on her father, it will simply be sending a message to the House of Grega, and also the rest of the Ethereal Realm.

“Seems like you found yourself a job, missy.” The bartender placed another drink down on the table as Ver dropped a handful of units as his tips.

“I guess you can say so,” Ver said, downing the second drink and stepping away from the bar.

It will be a quick one. In, kick-ass, and out.

In the meanwhile, Wu and Lera entered through the outer gates of the city. Compared to the soldiers rigidly guarding entrances into Fang city, there was no security for entering and leaving the city of Eternal Light. Eventually, the countryside just started to become more and more populated with buildings and people roaming the streets.

Despite the thriving markets around the river which ran all the way around the base of the mountain, the true city of Eternal Light only included all of the luxurious residences up the mountain, where the regions on the other side of the river were considered the greater city.

“So…where do we start with?” Lera asked, walking beside Wu and resisting the urge to hold his hand. Currently, they wore the standard Ethereal Realm outfits that consisted of grey loose-fitting and light garments. It was baggy enough to hide a full set of armor under, yet fitting enough to accentuate the general physique of the individuals around the shoulders and hips.

To hide their identities further, Wu and Lera carried their disguise Casts as they walked around. For the regular citizens living around the city, they wore the same grey clothes while those from the forty major houses wore gowns of their respective colors.

In the largest markets right next to the river, hundreds of people from the various houses had been lining up to purchase their lunches, and the houses with past feuds quickly got into trouble with one another. However, nothing ever exceeded the standard shoving and pushing. Though when half a dozen houses started doing it, the roudiness started to become unbearable.

“What a mess…” Wu sighed before he looked towards Lera, “Do you think you could set out the Cast Array to see what you can find? This garbage sensor is picking up nothing but noise.”

“Just gotta be…subtle with it.” Lera murmured, taking a seat besides Wu by a table in the corner before she placed her hand down by the chair. Lines of Wave extended out from her fingertips before diving deep underground and spreading slowly.

Soon, she covered the entirety of the market with her Cast array underground, though she kept everything dormant and passive so as not to raise any suspicions.

“It all felt normal...The lively kind of normal.” Lera said, glancing at the projections of her book of Casts which showed the signals in the Wave that it’s receiving, “Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the Wave signatures.”

“Right…let’s see.” Wu took out the small booklet that detailed all of the houses that was given to him by Ver, “We got…House of Silverthorne wearing silver beefing with House of Militar wearing grey here…apparently, they have clashed pretty hard during and ever since the last tournament. Silverthorne is ranked 20th, and Militar ranked 16th.”

“Militar sounded familiar…What about those people in blue?” Lera asked, pointing to a cluster of groups wearing blue outfits sitting at the table on the far side that everyone seemed to be avoiding.

“That seemed to be…House of Fisher. Ranked number 10. They were from a city by the sea. Ha, fishers. Very funny.” Wu smirked as a man wearing a white gown with red lines walked by slowly in front of their table. He turned and glanced quickly at Lera's book of Casts before going about his business.

Lera stared at the backside of the man quickly before recreating the projections that she had hit away quickly, and his signature in the Wave seemed normal.

However, it was too normal. Usually, people’s Wave signatures oscillate with a certain intensity and frequency, but his Wave was held at a flat line.

“What about people wearing white?” Lera asked again as Wu flipped the page over.

“House of Angolia? 2nd ranked place and they wear white.” Wu said, showing Lera the booklet, but she shook her head.

The color and shading just weren’t matching what they had in the booklet. If anything...that sort of red reminded her of PORA's colors...

“That man. There’s something about him.” Lera said, trying to find the man in the crowd again, but there was nothing. She felt cold sweats forming along her back before she quickly examined the projection Cast over her book, but that steady signal had disappeared also.

“Which man?”