“I’m going to kill her.” Isidre scowled… well not at me, I was just in the way. Sort of. All of my running around starting rumours must have been good training for [Illusion Magic], because it had increased to Level Five. That meant more spells, and I was trying one out today.

“You don’t mean that,” I said. “She beat you, but she didn’t hurt you.”

“She stole Manchas!”

I sighed. Well, my [Phantasmal Emissary] did. I was invisible on the roof. This new spell did pretty much what my previous combo did, but it was much easier, and I didn’t have to be in the same room. The range was pretty limited, I did have to follow the puppet about, but I could kick back on the roof and see through its eyes. And talk with its mouth, which was about ten times easier than casting [Unseen Sound] all the time.

“Look, she saved countless people in town, people that you endangered. You should be thanking her,” I said. It was barely a lie. Every word but one was the truth. Still, I doubted that Isidre would react well to the truth, and Kaito was willing to take the blame.

“You’re on her side!” she accused.

“There’s no need to take sides, this whole thing is over,” I claimed. Hopefully, it was. “You just can’t admit you made a mistake in the first place. Why’d you even take the damn thing?”

“It just… seemed right,” she said. “Like I was going to be a holy warrior, so I needed a special mount. That’s why I went for the griffins in the first place, but when I saw him… I knew he was special.”

"Did you get in trouble with the Baron for putting the town in danger?” I asked.

She shrugged. “At first he didn’t believe it would happen, and afterwards, he was more concerned about some prisoner that escaped.”

Oh, that boded well. As far as I was aware, Marseau hadn’t had a chance to check up on his pet dungeon, but that couldn’t last.

“The King’s guy, the Inquisitor has been on my case about it though. He wants me to go north-east, join in on some big plan the King has got going.”

“Are you going to?” I asked, carefully keeping the eagerness out of my tone. It would be nice if she left. Having someone from Earth to chat with was nice, but we didn’t have that many shared experiences to talk about. Guatemala may have had McDonald's, but it was a completely different country from Australia.

I was beginning to sympathise with what Tom had told me about the ruling class’s attitude towards Champions. As long as Isidre was hanging around, it meant that Duit had an agenda here. It might help or hinder me, but I was stuck waiting to find out what it was.

“Maybe,” she said, but the look on her face said no. I was tempted to try [Persuading] her, but I held off. Back when I was a lower level, I’d noticed that I was more resistant to social skills than the numbers would have suggested. After subtly [Persuading] the merchants association, I had the distinct impression that if I’d tried that on me, it wouldn’t go as well as it had.

Maybe Count Duvost had just been heavy-handed, but I’d been able to tell that I was being managed, and could resist it to some extent. The merchants didn’t seem to know what was happening. Maybe it was because my skill was higher, or because they were inclined to go along with me anyway… but I didn’t want to risk that there was a special Champion resistance.

I’d just have to work around her until she decided to be useful.

Marseau lifted the restrictions on the town after a delegation from the merchants protested against the damage being done to their businesses. My anti-war faction was prominent in getting that delegation together, but it wasn’t as if anybody was in favour of restrictions on trade.

We couldn’t really take credit for making Marseau back down - it was obvious to everyone that the whole thing was a farce. The search of the town had been completed without anyone finding anything, the assassin had clearly left long ago.

I found the fact that the Inquisitor hadn’t left, or made a pronouncement about the killing somewhat ominous.

It seemed to me that the Baron’s next order of business would be on checking on Mandel in his Dungeon. He hadn’t found Edele here, that was the next obvious place - although he must be wondering how she would have made it there.

I’d convinced my merchant’s faction that we needed to keep an eye on the Baron’s activities in order to uncover his crimes. It wasn’t much of an information network, just a few guards reporting what they noticed to their friends and relatives. But it was enough, because they passed it all to me.

“A whole flight of griffins is being prepared for two days time,” Noah told me. “They’re taking passengers, but they haven’t been told who they are.”

“Interesting. Do they know where they’re going?” I asked. The other merchants had been grateful that I’d volunteered to be the point of contact for all the information coming in. We weren’t meeting that often, so if I’d had to wait until the next meeting for this news, the Baron would be gone already.

The merchant shook his head. “Based on the loadout, my cousin thinks it's no more than a day trip.”

I smiled. “Make sure your cousin knows what the Fangs look like. I’ll wager that Baron is getting them in position for some sort of staged attack on the Tribes.”

That was bullshit of course, but the man nodded and went on his way. We didn’t have much in the way of eyes on the Fangs - honest merchants and guards stood out in that part of town. But if they were taking griffins somewhere, I knew where they were likely to be going. It looked like Tom would get his meeting with Kaito after all.

“If I said I was going to overthrow the King, would you feel like you had to stop me?” I asked the group.

Felicia raised her eyebrows. “Are you going overthrow the King? Tonight?”

“No,” I said unconvincingly. “But some of the things I am planning to do, the King might not like very much.”

“Like stealing a Dungeon Core?” Kyle asked with a smile.

“Or lying to the Adventurers guild?” Felicia tried. “Seeing that Lord Duvost gets what’s coming to him?”

“Something like that,” I admitted. “I don’t think it’s treason for me, since I was never a part of your country, but I don’t think that will stop them if they start coming for me - and you, by extension.”

Cloridan shrugged. “Treason is something that nobles have to worry about. Us lowly commoners are expected to keep our mouths shut and follow whoever is in charge this week.”

“Is loyalty to the nation not a thing here then?” I asked.

“Loyalty is earned,” Cloridan stated firmly. “How can a nation earn loyalty? No, it’s the King that due any loyalty, and this one…” He trailed off looking at the others.

“He’s alright, I guess,” Kyle said. “Kept faith with the adventurers, pretty much. The nobles though…”

“Yeah, no one seems to like the nobles,” I admitted.

“I’ve heard that there are good ones,” Cloridan replied, “But never where they’re to be found.”

Felicia giggled at that. “Remember, Kandis, the last set of Champions overthrew the Empire. We’ve been expecting something like this from the start.”

“Okay, I guess this plan is a go then,” I said. “Let me fill you in.”

“So, how did that refugee escort go for you?” I asked brightly. I sat down on the forest floor, the other girls surrounding me. They exchanged glances and then sat down in front of me.

“It went fine,” Orino said coolly. “Why do you ask?” The harem had been friendly enough to start, but they’d gotten suspicious of me when I’d suggested that Kaito have a private talk with Tom, while the rest of us indulged in a little girl talk.

It had amused me no end that Kaito didn’t pick up on the fact that she was a girl and shouldn’t be excluded from the girl’s group. Since we were speaking in Japanese, none of the others had a chance to make that objection either.

“Just making conversation,” I said. “I wanted to have a talk with you girls because…” I paused, not sure if I was making a faux pas. “You know that she spent development points on [Harem], right?”

Ettalle giggled, while Fassi blushed and looked away. Orino though, kept her gaze on me. “Of course,” she said.

“Well,” I said awkwardly. “We don’t have anything like that back home, you know? So when I heard about it, I was worried that some sort of coercion was involved.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Orino said. Her expression had softened slightly, which I took as a good sign.

“How does it work then?” I asked. “I bought some coins with development points, and they just appeared in my hand! Is that how it worked for you girls?”

Ettalle laughed out loud. “Ha! Can you imagine a couple of naked girls just appearing in her arms? She’d have freaked out!”

“No, it doesn’t work that way,” Orino repeated. “It was all very… natural.”

“There was a big feast called.” Fassi, the rabbit-kin spoke up shyly. “To select the companions for the Chosen. She met a lot of people, but for us… it just felt right. On both sides.”

“That doesn’t exactly re-assure me that there wasn’t any coercion. If not from Kaito, then from the System.”

Orino shrugged. “It’s not like anyone can resist their [Status],” she said. “I don’t feel bound to Kaito, I just want to be with her.”

“And you are still all your own selves? I had heard he didn’t like you breaching the Dungeons, that was your own will?”

“That was the will of the Tribal Council,” Zichy said, the wolf-kin speaking up for the first time.

“They sought to start a war?” I asked.

“No, the Dungeons were a message, expressing their anger.”

“It's a shame no one's invented email already,” I said, to their incomprehension. I looked over at Kaito, still talking animatedly with Tom. “She’s looking for peace.”

“She has been lobbying the Council,” Orino agreed. “It is… commendable. And they do listen to Naldyna’s Champion. But your King seeks to expand, and he has men like your Baron to push that expansion.”

“Not my King, not my Baron,” I said mildly.

“Ah… Sorry. You look so much like one of them, that I forgot.” She did look embarrassed, which I had to admit was an adorable look on the little mouse-kin.

“Understandable,” I said, waving a hand magnanimously. “Don’t worry about it. But speaking of the Baron…”

I glanced over to make sure Kaito was still talking.

“What would your people do, if they had advance notice that Baron Marseau was going to be in the forest - well, the mountains anyway - in a few days?”

Orino’s eyes narrowed, but it was Zichy that spoke.

“You know this?”

In for a penny… “I do,” I said. “He’ll be coming to attack the Dungeon under Mandel’s place, so he won’t be alone. But he will be vulnerable.”

“Mandel? The [Enchanter]? Where we took that girl?” Nori asked. I nodded. “The [Enchanter] lives in a Dungeon?” she said wonderingly.

“He’s coming after the girl,” I explained. “At first he’ll send his thugs and cutthroats, but I think Mandel can handle them this time. After that fails, he’ll come in force, and I’m almost certain he’ll be leading his troops.”

“He can’t take his troops through the forest,” Nori said. “He might be able to punch through on his own, but he’d lose too many men to be worth taking them.”

“He’ll bring them on griffins,” I agreed, “So he’s going to be limited to what he can bring… unless he camps outside and makes multiple trips.” I was surprised at their assessment of his capacity, but he was a Level 6.

Zichy looked uncertainly at Orino. “We have to tell the Council,” she said. “Even if they don’t trust-” she broke off, with an embarrassed glance my way.

“You’ve got some options, tactically,” I said. “You can confirm with Mandel that he’s expecting a visit and that he’s preparing to fight them off. I don’t know if he can take the Baron’s full force attack, but if your force was to attack from behind…”

“Or,” I said as the silence extended. “You might just want to drive off or capture their griffins, leaving them trapped on the mountain. One thing though, that you might want to plan for.”

I looked at each of them in turn and then pointed to Kaito. “She’ll be upset if this starts a war, so make sure that no one finds out who killed the Baron.”